The Open Sea

Chapters

Weather
On the Water
Old Friend
Stormclouds
Fake Out
New Soil
Decisions
Derailed
CX1 - Setting Sail
Unrest
Magic and Revelations
C11 - Princess
C12 - Making Waves
C13 - Catching Up
C14 - Number Two
C15 - Shore Party

Weather

“AJ! I need you to keep us on toward Crest Island!” Twilight called down to her friend.

“Ah am, Twi. The storm comin’ up is gonna rake us hard if we don’t turn into it, though.”

Twilight sighed. She knew that they would have to weather the storm or run from it, and they were NOT going back to Fog Island anytime soon if they could help it. “Alright. Get us through the storm, AJ, but whatever you do, make sure that we don’t turn back towards Fog.”

“Got it, Twi,” the orange earth pony responded.

Twilight Sparkle, former student to Princess Celestia herself and the bearer of the Element of Magic before the Flood found herself heading down the stairs from the upper deck to midship, frowning. There, she saw Pinkie Pie and Rainbow dash speaking, eating some of the oats they had purchased from a merchant of Fog Island from small, brown paper bags.

“Rainbow, Pinkie, we’ve gotta get the sails secure. I’ll get Fluttershy and Scootaloo to help you – the storm will be on us quite fast. I’ll get belowdecks and see about reinforcing our hull.”

The rainbow-maned Pegasus and pink earth pony looked at her and nodded, setting aside their food. They immediately began to get to work, pulling in the main sail on the mast and minimizing surfaces for the strong winds to drag about.

Twilight entered the crew deck and found most of her other shipmates there, talking, eating, drinking. Twilight moved around the room and found Scootaloo and Fluttershy in the back. They looked at her as she approached, nervous.

“Sorry guys. Rainbow and Pinkie need help up top shoring things up.”

The two pegasi nodded. “Okay, Twilight,” Fluttershy said. The yellow flier pushed the younger Pegasus ahead of her as the two left to go up top.

Twilight looked around herself, trying to find Rarity. It shouldn’t be hard to find one pony on a ship with a crew of only 14, but Rarity always seemed to be somewhere unexpected.

The lavender mare took stock.

AJ was piloting. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Scootaloo were above-deck getting ready for the storm. That’s five. In the common area was Twilight herself, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell, Big Macintosh, and sleeping old Granny Smith in the cot in the corner. That’s 10. Elsewhere on the ship was Redheart, Rarity, Spike, and Cheerilee. Sighing again, the lavender unicorn exited the crew area and went below, toward the magazine and cargo hold.

She found Spike and Cheerilee speaking in the magazine, the purple dragon leaned against a tall barrel.

“Spike, can you please not lean on the powder? I know it’s-“

“I’ve got it, Twilight,” Spike said. The dragon stood up and stretched, his arms higher than Cheerilee’s head.

“Thanks, Spike. Have either of you seen Rarity?”

Cheerilee nodded. “Yes, I saw her head into the starboard cargo hold a little while ago. Why?” she asked.

“Storm soon. We need to reinforce the hull. Get Redheart in here and the three of you should secure everything down here. Thanks, Cheers.”

The pony and dragon nodded, and got to work. Twilight turned to head into the starboard hold when she saw Redheart. Before Twilight could say anything, the nurse gestured with a hoof. “I heard.”

Twilight nodded and entered the hold. True to Cheerilee’s word, Rarity was inside. The white unicorn was looking into a mirror that was being held aloft by a blue aura.

Twilight frowned. “Rarity, I know you’re worried about them, but you haven’t been able to see them before.”

The unicorn in question turned to Twilight, eyes glistening. “Rarity, you know that a lot of spells stopped working once the Flood hit.”

Rarity’s eyes were threatening to drop tears, but she nodded. “I know Twilight, but I can’t help but think that something went wrong on that ship.”

“I realize that you’re worried, Rarity, but we have bigger problems on the way. A storm, in just a little bit.”

Rarity started, but nodded once again, her eyes hardening. “Okay. I’ll reinforce the lower deck. You go ahead and head up.”

“Good,” Twilight said. “Glad I can count on my First Mate.”

Twilight Sparkle went back above, and began lacing the wood planks with her magical energy. It would wear off overnight, but it would add protection against the deadly waves and wind. She also shot a spear of energy into the mast, since it would need extra support.

She travelled around, putting her horn here and there, sending small lavender shocks into the wood of the ship. Her ship. The Free Mare, it was called, and it was Her Ship.

Twilight looked around for her companions, but realized that they were done working and had retreated to the crew quarters. She looked up at the darkening sky, knowing that the storm on its way was huge, and it would be hard on them. She entered the Pilot’s area, and set her hoof on Applejack’s back. “AJ, are you sure you can handle this alone?”

The orange mare, after their last storm, had requested that she be allowed to deal with the next storm alone. Not knowing why, Twilight had let her do it, knowing her friend to be capable.

“Ah know ah can, Twi. I need to do this, for myself.”

Twilight nodded and exited the area. As she made her way to the crew quarters, the other four sailors came up from below decks. The five all entered the crew area together, and the tones inside were hushed as they all worried about the storm overhead.

“Okay everypony,” Twilight began, “keep calm. We’ve been through a dozen storms like this, and half a dozen worse. Just keep your heads on, and if AJ calls, then we’re there to help.”

Twelve nods were sent at her. “Just keep on going, and know that we’re going to be fine, and at Crest Island before the week is out.”

Twilight moved to the large silver box placed alongside the wall, by the door to the decks. “AJ, you got that?” She asked, touching a hoof to it.

“Yeah, I’ll shout if I need y’all,” a tinny voice came back.

“Good.” Twilight released her hoof. “Okay everypony, let’s hunker down.”

Twilight retreated towards the port side of the room and stared out at the waves that grew ever larger, in a little porthole.

Rainbow Dash walked up beside her, flicking the lavender unicorn with her wing. “You sure it’s all gonna be okay, Twi?”

“I know it should, Rainbow, but I just have this stupid feeling that this storm is more than just a storm.”

The two mares stared outside for a moment, and then the cyan Pegasus pushed Twilight aside. “Aww, it’ll be fine, egghead. It’s just a storm.”

Twilight nodded before laying down on the floor. “I hope you’re right, Rainbow, I hope you’re right.”

On the Water

Twilight Sparkle awoke to a rolling beneath her.

She didn’t open her eyes immediately, instead waiting for all her senses to be drawn together. A slow awakening was always more restful. It took a moment, but her first sense was hearing. She heard voices, low and quiet. It took another moment to place the voices. Rainbow Dash, Big Macintosh and Sweetie Bell were all holding a conversation, likely across the room.

Twilight opened her eyes then and was met with the sight of lanterns, a warm, yellow glow.

She yawned, which alerted her companions to her wakefulness. “Twilight, you’re up!” Sweetie Bell exclaimed, trotting over to her. The other two did the same.

“How long was I… the storm! What happened?” Twilight stood, making Sweetie Bell step back.

“Calm down, Twilight. The storm went over with little damage. Flutters and I had to repair a sail, but no biggie. You were calm, and you hadn’t slept in days, so we figured let you go,” Rainbow said, calming her. “It’s sometime around three or four in the morning. It’s hard to tell, since the princesses don’t control the days anymore.”

Twilight shook her head, her multicolored mane a mess from sleeping on the floor. “What do you mean I haven’t slept in days? I slept when we got into port at Fog, and the night after that.”

Macintosh laughed at that. “Twilight, we were running for two days after that. You didn’t sleep at all.”

Twilight frowned. “Okay. Well. Who’s where?”

Sweetie Bell spoke up. “Rarity, Applejack, and Cheers are up top. The rest are asleep in the quarters.”

“Thanks, Bell,” Twilight said, smiling. Internally, she was staving off the panic of what might have happened in the storm. It had been a doozie, but apparently her good friends had been fine.

“I’ll go up top, see how everypony up there is doing,” Twilight notified her sailors.

“I’ll go with you,” Rainbow said. Twilight nodded.

“We’ll be in here if you need us,” Sweetie Bell said.

The two mares left the crew quarters and stepped on deck. The air about them was brisk, almost chilly, due to the cold air on the other side of the storm. Rarity and Cheerilee, speaking to each other, noticed the two and trotted over to them.

Rarity smiled at Twilight. “Glad you got some sleep, dear, I could see bags the size of Rainbow’s ego under your eyes last night.”

At that jibe, the cyan Pegasus gave Rarity a dirty look and both mares laughed.

Cheerilee frowned at that. “Sweetie Bell convinced us all to let you sleep. I absolutely agreed with her. You’re pushing yourself too hard, Twilight. It’s not the end of the world if we’re a day or two late to Crest. Bon Bon will wait for us, it’s not like she has an urgent need. She always has us get cocoa for her with time to spare.”

Twilght stared at the mare, and nodded. “You’re right, Cheers. Thank you everypony. I feel a lot better now, if a bit stiff. You all enjoy the night air, I’ll go talk to AJ.”

The three ponies around her smiled and nodded, and left her to head to the Pilot Deck.

The Free Mare was unique, when it came to ships. Most of the ships that sailed the Equestrian Sea were your garden variety wheel-in-front-on-top-in-plain-sight-pilot-easy-to-kill ships. Twilight, knowing that there were going to be a lot of ponies that would take advantage of the loss of government, commissioned her own ship. The Pilot Deck was her main improvement. Instead of being open like normal ships, her special Pilot Deck was completely covered. In front and on the sides were a pair of magically-imbued shutters that would open, close and everything in-between at the Pilot’s wish.

The heavy shutters were great protection from hostile ships, and had already saved Twilight’s and Applejack’s lives twice, stopping cannonballs in their tracks.

Twilight Sparkle entered the Pilot Deck and found the orange earth pony mostly draped over the wheel that controlled the ship’s direction.

“You know, Twi, if you sold the designs for all this magitech stuff you make, we’d live out the rest of our lives in lazy prosperity.”

Twilight widened her eyes at the statement, and then laughed, a good belly laugh that hadn’t escaped her in three or four months. She approached the earth pony and kept laughing. Applejack turned to her captain, stared a moment, and started laughing too.

Twilight, finally able to breathe, wiped a tear from her eye. “Oh dear, what would be the fun in that?”

Applejack prodded her with a hoof. “One of these days, we’re gonna have to settle down, and you’ll finally rediscover books.”

Twilight didn’t have books on the Free Mare. She couldn’t. Where one book was, she’d gather more and more until she’d be inundated by books and be unable to captain the ship. She didn’t want that.

Though the Flood had been terrible, and things now were harder than ever before, every pony on the Free Mare loved the life they lived. The Free Mare was just that – a place for ponies to pry a living out from the Sea that had claimed their previous lives. Freedom.

“So, Applejack, how’d you do in the storm?” Twilight asked, calm now. She leaned against a wall, staring through the open windows.

“Did great, no thanks to my sleepyhead captain. Only had to open the drains once. These shutter things you designed really are great, Twi.”

Twilight smirked. “So, why did you want to do this in the first place, AJ? You seemed really adamant, and I only agreed because I wanted to find out why. I have to know stuff like this.”

Applejack sighed, and turned to the lavender unicorn. “All the time, during times of duress, you’ve been in here, shouting orders out the door. Storms, battles, everything. You’re always in here, helping me navigate this darn ship. So I wanted to show you that I can do it myself. We have the map. We have the compass. I know where to go and how to do it, Twi. You’re more needed out there with everypony else during duress, and you know it.”

Twilight stared at Applejack a moment, and broke out into a big smile.

“Good, because I was gonna stop doing it anyway. You’re a big girl. How much farther to Crest, miss navigator?”

“Woah, hold there partner. I want it in a promise. You be out there helping during an emergency unless I come shoutin’. Got it?”

“Okay, I promise, AJ.”

The orange mare stared at Twilight.

“What? Oh, fine. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Twilight did the motions, and when she put her hoof to her closed eye, Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared in front of the ship, dangling by a rope. The pink mare stared at Twilight and put her hoof out.

“What they hay, Pinkie! I asked you to not do that when I’m in here usin’ the wheel,” Applejack exclaimed.

Pinkie Pie just narrowed her eyes at Twilight as the trio heard Rainbow Dash speak.

“Pinkie, I need that rope!” she said as the rope, holding Pinkie, was hoisted up.

Twilight Sparkle and Applejack laughed, shaking their heads. Applejack turned to Twilight. “Four days to Crest. That storm actually made us faster, and we got a favorable wind right now.”

Twilight walked to the door and opened it. “I’ll let everypony know. Oh, and Applejack?”

“Yeah Twi?”

“Good job.” Twilight left the deck, closing the door behind her.

Twilight walked through the ship, telling everypony that it was only four days to Crest.

When Twilight went to tell Rarity, however, she found the white unicorn in the starboard hold again, using the mirror.

Twilight walked over to Rarity and nudged her. Rarity flinched and looked at Twilight.

“Rarity. Scrying doesn’t work anymore. You’ve got to stop. It’s not healthy.”

Rarity stared at Twilight a moment, and then nodded.’

“You’re right. I’ve got to stop worrying about them and get on with it. They’ll be fine. They’ll find what they’re looking for, and help us all.”

Twilight nodded as Rarity set the mirror down, and exited the room.

Twilight was right behind her. “Four days to Crest,” she told Rarity.

“That’s good news, I’m due for a good hooficure and Fog Island simply couldn’t offer what a girl really needs.”

Twilight laughed, buoyed by all the good news. She’d been wrong about the storm – it had simply propelled them to their destination, and nothing could bring her down.

Far along, on the horizon, sailed a lone ship. Its captain raised a telescope to her eye, looking at the red sails of the Free Mare, barely visible in the moonlight.

“The Free Mare. Twilight Sparkle. We’ve caught you, and you’re going down as soon as we catch up to you.”

The captain turned to a brown Pegasus at the wheel. “Follow the Free Mare. But don’t let them know we’re here. Stay away from them.”

The Pegasus nodded. “Yes, mistress.”

Old Friend

“Crest Island, coming up!”

Rainbow Dash flew down from her little post on the mast, shouting to those below. “Crest is just on the horizon.”

Twilight smiled. Four days at sea was a new record for the Free Mare. Usually, between Fog and Crest, it would take them seven or eight days. Twilight thought that the storm must have been a strong one, to save them two days of sea travel.

Of course, now that it was only an hour or two to the Island, it meant renewed work. They were no longer able to lounge about – they’d have to get their shipment on the Island, get paid, and a little shore leave while Twilight and Rarity found them another job.

“Alright, you lazy ponies! Get down in the hold and secure everything for unloading,” Twilight said. The other seven ponies on deck went below to get the cocoa beans and other supplies ready. Twilight headed into the crew quarters and had the rest go down.

Now that the upper deck was abandoned except for Twilight, she looked out to sea and sighed.

She loved this life. She really did. But she also wondered what life would have been, had the Flood never come. This thought brought her to the next one – where were the princesses? The equestrian sea was filled with ponies that refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of the new government, simply because it wasn’t Celestia and Luna. It was a silly sentiment in Twilight’s opinion, but they clung to it.

Crest Island was one of the larger islands of that variety. It had been the first to create its own government, and was flourishing due to the new economy and the constant flow of goods through its ports.

Ponies adapt. They always had. They always would. Even when this world was no longer new, when it was just there. Twilight had a thought that saddened her – the new generations coming into the world would not remember what it was like to live on endless land. They would only remember the sea, the beautiful, deadly sea.

Twilight brooded as Crest Island, a large, black shadow on the horizon, grew in size and color, until she could make out its major port in the large bay.

Twilight loved the sea – it had given her a new life – and it supplied her with everything necessary to make her living. Sure, it had destroyed the lives of many, but there was nothing she could do about it, so she chose to ignore it. She knew that she should be devastated that so many had lost their lives, but knew that the pony mind shut itself off to atrocities that large, in order to protect itself.

Regardless, there was work to be done. The port came closer and closer to view, and finally it was time to set the anchor as the ship pulled in next to the harbor.

“Alright AJ, lower the anchor.”

“Can do, Twi.”

Inside the Pilot Deck, Applejack flicked a switch that let the anchor fall into the water, keeping the Free Mare in place.

Twilight and Applejack went below, and found the other ponies lounging about, ready to start bringing the supplies to the shore.

Immediately the lavender unicorn began issuing orders.

“Rainbow, Fluttershy, Bell and Mac – get to work on bringing that Cocoa to Bon Bon. I want no less than twelve bits a barrel – try for seventeen. We’ve got to make a profit there.”

She turned again. “Redheart, Pinkie, and Scootaloo – get us some more supplies and some of that stuff called “Swig.” I want to try it. Don’t spend more than sixty bits, if you can help it.”

“Applejack, Granny Smith, Applebloom, and Spike – you all are staying on the Mare tonight. You’ll get some leave tomorrow.

“Cheers, you and Rarity are with me. We’re going to find ourselves more work.”

All the ponies nodded and got to work. Twilight, Rarity and Cheerilee went above and put the ramp down to the stone harbor, and walked down the fairly steep wooden ramp.

At the bottom, they secured the Mare to the harbor with several long ropes, and as they finished, Rainbow Dash exited the ship with a barrel of expensive cocoa beans.

“Careful with that, Rainbow,” Rarity called up.

“I know, Rarity, I got it.”

The Pegasus slowly lowered the barrel along the ramp, and propped it up at the bottom.

“Where are you girls gonna try first?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“We’ll try the tavern first. I’m hungry for some hot food, and a lot of folks head there for ponies like us.” Twilight answered.

Rainbow nodded. “Well, I’m off to go discuss price at Candy Coated. Good luck,” Rainbow said as she departed, flying fast and low.

“You too,” Cheerilee called as she flew away. Cheerilee turned to her companions. “She just doesn’t slow down, does she?”

Twilight and Rarity laughed. “Not when there’s a good tavern around,” Twilight returned.

The three mares left the harbor behind and headed to the best tavern in Crest City – The Sea Tap.

As they entered the city proper, there were more and more ponies moving about their lives, getting things done. Even though a large part of the island was forested, Crest City and the other smaller settlements on Crest Island were forging out a living in the hostile wilderness. Twilight stared a moment at Ridge Mountain. Most of the islands had been mountains or high plateaus, but Crest was the highest, a huge thousand feet above sea level.

“Twilight, are you there? Hello?”

Twilight looked down to see Cheerilee and Rarity staring at her. She’d zoned out again.

“Sorry, girls. Just thinking.”

The other two mares nodded, and the trio started forward again. Finally, the tavern was in sight. The sign outside the weathered building said “The Sea Tap – finest drink in all of Crest City” in big, bold letters. “Here we go,” Twilight remarked.

The door of the tavern opened with a noisy creak, and all of its occupants glanced to see the newcomers. A couple, recognizing the mares, or at least Twilight, nodded in their direction. The three ponies strode into the building, confident and looking around.

“Pardon my stare, but I appear to be meeting the captain of the Free Mare.”

Twilight’s eyes widened and looked behind her, as well as Cheerilee and Rarity a moment after.

“Zecora!”

Twilight dashed forward and caught the zebra in a rough hug, causing the striped mare’s jewelry to jangle loudly.

“Zecora, we haven’t seen you for over a year! How have you been?” Twilight asked, excited to see an old friend.

“I am glad to see that you have cared – well, have I fared. What brings you ponies to Crest, is it work, or is it rest?”

Rarity stepped forward and hugged Zecora herself, and when she stepped back, she answered “Looking for work after finishing a job.”

“Well, there is work all around! But let us wait – I wish to discuss what has happened since we last were together aground.”

The zebra and three ponies all went to a table in the back, where the mare was drinking a large mug of apple cider.

“Last we saw you, you were working for my brother back on Canter Island. What made you come to Crest?” Twilight asked.

“I was only hurting the way he looked – one who consorts with pirates, should not at the palace be booked.”

“He threw you out because of that? What the hay! He doesn’t have to worry about that.” Twilight exclaimed, angry at her brother.

“It was not the fault of the King – many little bugs saw me as their chance to sting. So now I work for him quietly on Crest – keeping me happy, while mollifying the rest.”

Twilight considered that a moment. “Alright. So what do you do now?”

“I watch other important ponies, keeping my eye out for phonies.”

“Ah. Okay.” Twilight stretched her neck, and yawned. “You know anypony who needs a ship for anything?”

Zecora considered a moment. “A dangerous job I offer, one that will fill your coffer.”

“What is it?”

“Once I tell you, you must accept. Secrets are often poorly kept.”

Twilight frowned. “What kind of danger?”

“Unknown, Twilight my dear. There is a new Island with many dangers I fear.”

“A new, uncharted Island? Well, my map charts itself wherever the Mare goes. That’s a perfect job for us.”

“Then the details are yours – come back here, once you have explored the island of Torres.” The zebra pushed a roll of papers at Twilight.

“Thank you a lot, Zecora. It’s nice to have a job not involving passengers or cargo. Both make my ship a target. It was great to see you again, though. Glad you’re still working.” The three ponies stood, and Twilight took a hold of the papers.

“No, it is I that am glad – were you to disappear completely, one would be very sad.”

Twilight smiled at the Zebra, and the trio left the tavern.

And bumped right into Rainbow dash with a clinking bag.

Twilight raised her eyebrows at the mare, who looked sheepish for a whopping half second.

“Fourteen bits a barrel, all delivered. Bon says thanks, and she’ll come to you if she needs more and you’re around.”

She stuck the bag out at Twilight, and the unicorn took it.

Twilight smiled. “Good job, Rainbow.” She took the bag and counted out seven of the coins, and drifted them to Rainbow. “Have a drink on me,” she said, giving the Pegasus one more bit than her share. Rainbow smiled.

“Thanks, Twi! Hey, did we get any work?”

“In fact, we did. From an old friend. She’s in the tavern. Go talk to her. We’ll leave mid-day tomorrow.”

“Awesome. See ya on the ship, guys.”

The four ponies separated, and went on their ways. Twilight looked at her companions. “I’m heading back to the Mare. I need some extra sleep tonight. You gals do whatever you like, just be back at the ship by noon tomorrow.”

Her companions nodded, and started walking off into the city.

The Free Mare had stopped at Crest City dozens of times. It was the largest Island in the area, and that area was one they travelled often. They often chained around the surrounding islands – Fog, Crest, Cross, Reel and Windfall – to do work wherever it was needed.

As Twilight made it to the harbor, she looked around. She was surprised to see a ship with blue sails docking at the harbor.

“Blue sails?”

A passing dockworker heard her. “Yeah, apparently it’s a big, fancy ship from the Severed Isles.” He passed on.

“The Severed Isles…”

Twilight thought to herself again as she strode toward the red sails of her own ship. The Severed Isles were a chain of smaller Islands to the west, together making up the largest territory governed by one body other than the Equestrian government. If they were sending out official ships, something was brewing.

Twilight boarded her ship, heading to the captain’s quarters as the sun began to set.

So what if the Severed Isles were trying to expand. Wasn’t her problem. Equestrian, Severed, it didn’t matter.

The Free Mare was governed by nopony but Twilight and her crew.

Stormclouds

Twilight stood above the Pilot Deck, staring at the retreating harbor behind them.

Seeing Zecora had been good. Twilight didn’t want to get so caught up in the new and upcoming that she forgot the past. Even if that past was now somewhat clouded by bad blood.

Twilight wasn’t going to think about that. She shook her head, her mane flying in the wind that pushed against her ship.

She walked down the stairs to the main deck, watching her crew prepare for the three-day voyage.

“Provisions, check. Extra sails, check. All crew accounted for,” Twilight looked around, pausing in her musing. Everypony was on the main deck, either setting up the ship or watching the receding bay. “Check.”

“Twilight, what did we say about the lists!”

Twilight turned aside, and Spike was staring at her, hands on his hips.

“Sorry, Spike. Just doing some thinking.”

Spike’s irritated expression softened. “Twilight, you don’t need to think about that stuff anymore. I know you’ve made some mistakes, but c’mon, brooding won’t help. He understands. Both of you wish things different, but it’s not.”

Twilight smiled at the dragon, remembering the days when he wasn’t so tall.

“Jeeze, Spike. Five years ago I’d have been giving you the same shtick. Thanks, buddy.”

The purple dragon only smiled. “It’s fine. Just keep your head on straight. We’ve gotta explore this Island, and we can’t have our captain spacing out.”

Twilight laughed at that. “Of course. Now. I heard you tried some of that new drink we picked up without telling me first.”

Spike’s eyes widened. “It was just a sip! It smelled so sweet!”

Twilight reached out and hit the dragon in the shoulder with her hoof. “Just messing with you. I didn’t tell anypony that it was off-limits. Though… you’re a little young to drink alcohol, Spike.”

He glowered. “Would you rather me drink seawater?”

Twilight laughed again, getting into a lighthearted mood. She walked past him, staring at her red sails. Her ship was the only one on the Equestrian Sea that flew those colors. Many ships bore the symbol of their origin – ships from Crest showed a big wave, and ships from Canter would have a castle turret on them.

The Free Mare’s sails were a blank, vibrant red. Sure, it made them a target to pirates and other ships that preyed on others, but they’d defended themselves enough times to not worry too much.

She walked around the ship a bit more, and came to rest next to Redheart, the newest addition to the ship, if a year could be called new.

“Redheart. We don’t talk a lot. Why is that?”

The white pony turned and looked at Twilight, away from the speck that was Crest Island. “I don’t know, captain. I think we just never take the time to.”

The lavender unicorn smiled. “Obviously. Drop the ‘captain’ bit while we’re at sea.”

The smile turned to a grin. “Of course, you still have to follow my orders to the letter, but we can be informal if we like.”

The nurse nodded. “Of course. You told me when I came aboard that everypony was friends here.”

She turned to look at the ocean again, and Twilight looked with her. “I’m still sort of stuck in the past. Back at the hospital, everything was so different. We all vied against each other for control. Nopony wanted any friends. We all took care of our patients. It wasn’t about saving lives anymore – it was becoming a race just to be in favor.”

Twilight put a hoof on Redheart’s shoulder, causing the pony to flinch and glance at her. “Then you came, with Rarity in tow. I was her doctor… and she couldn’t pay.”

“Redheart, you can calm. It was the past. You’re here now, and everypony is okay with you.”

“That’s just it, cap- I mean, Twilight. I still can’t help but think that somepony is out to get me.”

“Redheart, you’ll be fine. Hay, Rainbow’s even got a nickname for you. Usually takes her over a year to warm up to somepony, and she called you ‘Reds’ within three weeks.”

Redheart smiled, and turned back to the sea. “I know. I just am very afraid of going back. Back to Canter Island. I don’t like it there, too many ponies, too little land.”

Twilight took her hoof off Redheart’s shoulder. “I know. It’s why we’re out here too. To live free, on the Free Mare. You think about that,” Twilight tittered a minute, “Reds.”

Redheart laughed at that, and Twilight walked away.

She cared about all her crew. Sure, it was important to maintain a good motivation in all your crewmembers, but it was more than that. She genuinely cared about her people, whether or not they were feeling well, feeling happy. She’d make sure to mention Redheart’s mood to Pinkie. Pinkie was always good with keeping ponies happy, even if the sugar ration on the ship always ran out faster than it should.

She wondered what supper would be. Though the ship was made of wood, they’d reinforced a section with copper and insulation in order to have a kitchen. Pinkie and Spike put out meal after meal there, keeping the crew’s bellies happy. Last night’s daffodil sandwich had been nice, eating it in harbor, but she wanted something hot tonight. Maybe she’d request some cooked carrots. Carrots were good in her book.

She looked around the deck. Everypony except Fluttershy, their current watch, was lounging up top.

That’s what sailing was. Waiting, lounging, and enjoying life.

“Twilight.”

The voice was incredibly soft. In fact, she thought she must have imagined it, but she looked up and saw Fluttershy right above her.

“Yeah, Fluttershy? What’s up?”

“Well, if you don’t mind, could you look back to the east with your scope? I think I saw something.”

“Alright. What is it you think you saw?”

Fluttershy landed next to Twilight and the two strode toward the Pilot Deck to grab the scope, Twilight’s long distance sight mechanism. It was amplified by magic, another example of magitech, slowly replacing regular magic in the contemporary world.

“I… I think it’s a ship. It’s really far off, so I’m sorry, I couldn’t see any markings. I don’t know why they’re following our route. There’s nothing out here.”

Twilight frowned. “Nothing but Torres Island.” She grabbed the scope off the wall, and brought it back. Levitating it up to her eye, she searched the horizon.

“Direction?” she asked.

“East. Directly east,” Fluttershy responded.

“Thanks, Flutter… no no no! Come ON!”

Twilight had spotted the ship, and was not pleased at all.

“I swear I didn’t break the orb! I didn’t!”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean…”

“Yeah. That ship’s symbol. Wispy, dark clouds.”

“No! But you said…” Rainbow Dash landed next to them, eyes wide.

“Nopony followed us, I know what I said. But I was wrong. They’re here, and they’re angry.”

“But you didn’t do anything, you said so!” The cyan Pegasus pleaded.

“I didn’t. But they think I destroyed the Orb of Clouds. And now the Cult of Fog is after us.”

The two pegasi looked at each other, eyes panicked. Rainbow looked at the ground, afraid and not afraid to show it.

She whispered to herself in a small voice, and Twilight strained herself to hear the pony’s words.

“But nopony survives the Cult’s ship…”

Twilight looked at her friend, her face determined.

"Then let's be the first."

She ran forward, and called the whole of the crew forward.

"Full speed ahead to Torres! Do whatever you have to to get us there faster! I want us there in a single day."

Cheerilee frowned, staring at the three frantic ponies.

"Why?"

Twilight had promised that she'd always be honest with her crew. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth.

"Because the Cult of Fog is less than two hours behind us, that's why."

Fake Out

Twilight turned to look at the red sun ahead of them. It loomed, large and imposing. Twilight used to think that it was “Celestia’s Sun,” until she realized that it kept on going without the princesses’ presence. Now she knew it was just a natural occurrence. The sun revolved around the planet, nothing else to it.

She looked back again at the Cult’s ship, noting how close it had come. It was faster than the Mare. Swifter. Better armed. All the Free Mare had was four cannons, and they’d never had to use two of them.

“Twilight. What are we going to do?”

Cheerilee had approached the unicorn from behind.

“I don’t know, Cheers. We’re going to have to fight them. I don’t know if we can win.”

There was an uncomfortable silence after that, and Twilight could feel Cheerilee’s eyes boring into her head from behind. She looked at the former teacher, and read her expression.

“No. Just no. The Sea won’t allow it, Cheers. They don’t work anymore. We’ve tried. Before we took you aboard, we tried, and it didn’t work.”

The mare looked tired after that. “Then if you’re not going to try the elements, then you’ve got to try and fight them the regular way.”

Twilight hung her head and waved her hoof.

“Tell everypony battle stations. And then tell AJ to turn this tub around. I want to have the fight brought to them for once.”

Cheerilee nodded, nervous. Twilight didn’t blame her. She was nervous too. But regardless, they had work to do.

It was time to fight. Time to defend their way of life once again. First it had been pirates. Then it had been someone she thought she could trust. And now it was a cult of psychopaths. Twilight gritted her teeth, and went below.

There she found everypony arming themselves. Ponykind was not used to battle. Twilight had had to engineer ways for everypony to defend themselves in a hurry. She took stock.

All the earth ponies (except for Granny Smith, who was in no shape to fight) were arming themselves with harnesses that stuck long, metal rods out past the ponies’ heads. This was to combat swords, if the enemy had them. They could push the swords out of the way and fight them hoof-to-hoof. It worked better than Twilight had expected the first time of their use.

The pegasi were more support roles. Their first job was to throw seawater and packets of jello mix into the enemy’s cannons, disabling them. Then they would fly around, dropping buckets of sand on the enemy combatants’ heads, impairing their ability to fight. The pegasi also short rods, like those the earth ponies used, in order to combat other pegasi. The mix between disabling enemy personnel and weapons, paired with constant harrying, made their role extremely important.

The Unicorns, Rarity, Sweetie Bell and Twilight, ran magical interference and damaging the enemy’s ship. They both ran a thin barrier over all their crewmates, preventing telekinesis from working on them. The three unicorns would board the enemy ship behind the earth ponies, taking saws and hammers. Their primary job was to destroy all important parts of the ship, mainly the mast. That was their first target, every time.

Spike was armed with a long pole that he used as a staff, more proficient with it than anypony except an experienced unicorn.

They didn’t want anypony to die. None of the weapons were actually weapons – they were tools to prevent death. They’d already won six fights with the strategy they used, and they didn’t plan on losing this one.

“Fluttershy, Rainbow, Scoots – Go on. I want those cannons disabled. I don’t want to be broadsided. Rarity, c’mon, we need to reinforce the ship.”

All of them walked forward out of the quarters except for Fluttershy, who was shivering in the back.

Twilight grimaced and trotted over to the scared Pegasus. “Fluttershy, please. It’s not safe for Scoots and Rainbow to go without you. They need you. Or the enemy may actually kill them.”

Fluttershy hardened her eyes, then. “Okay. I’ll go. And make sure nopony does any killing today.”

Twilight smiled, but it was a sad smile. It had taken her an hour the first time to convince the harmless Pegasus to fight. Kill was the word that set it off – once she heard that word, Fluttershy turned into an impenetrable shield around the other two pegasi.

Twilight and Fluttershy walked out on deck. The three pegasi, ready, flew off in the direction ahead of the ship, towards the Cult’s ship, out to disable the cannons. Twilight stared at the ship ahead of them. AJ had done a good job aiming them – they’d come right alongside the Cult’s ship in a few moments.

Twilight looked ahead, and saw the three pegasi fly under the Cult ship’s cannons. They quickly swept seawater into the cannons using buckets and flung the jello powder into them. As they disabled the enemy ship’s final cannons, their own pegasi went out to greet the Mare’s.

Seeing their plight, the allied Pegasi sped back to the Free mare to re-equip themselves. The trailing ones, five in number, flew back to their own ship.

At this point, the two ships were only two hundred feet apart and closing.

It was at this point that Twilight sprang her secret weapon – out of the front of the Free Mare, a sturdy pole stuck out, ready to snare the enemy ship into a death grip until Twilight or Rarity released it, and the foe’s ship could pass.

As the ships closed in distance, they could see each other’s forces.

The Free Mare held three unicorns, three pegasi, six earth ponies, and one dragon.

The Cult of Fog was better equipped to fight. Seven unicorns, five pegasi, and four earth ponies awaited them.

The two ships met sterns – and the hook grabbed it. Twilight, with Rarity and Applejack in tow, approached their own. Across the way, a unicorn in a long cloak walked forward, with a pegasus and an earth pony behind it.

“Why are you following our ship?” Twilight called, raising her pole.

“Twilight Sparkle, you have been charged with the breaking of the Orb of Clouds. This is punishable by death.”

Twilight, angry, was about to make a retort when she felt a hoof on her back. Looking, she saw Applejack giving her the ‘think before you act’ look. Twilight nodded, forgetting her words that she was about to speak. Instead of a pointless argument of philosophy, she intended to stave off a fight.

“I did no such thing. Nopony in my party did any such thing. The Orb had already been broken by the time my companions and I reached the vault.”

“This is doubtful. You are the only intruder in the palace in over two months.”

Twilight frowned. “When did you last look at the orb?”

The opposing unicorn, whom Twilight identified as a mare of greenish color, seemed startled by the question. “Would you have a temporary truce?”

Twilight was the one startled in return. It wasn’t like the Cult of Fog to do this. Their reputation said that they were bloodthirsty, fanatical fighters.

What it didn’t say about them was that they were devious in any way.

Suspicious anyway, Twilight nodded. “Free Mare, please continue in a non-hostile fashion while we sort this out. Twilight’s little party and the other mare’s party moved forward, and the only thing separating them was a couple feet of open air between the sterns.

“Twilight Sparkle, captain of the Free Mare, the Cult of Fog has a problem,” the other mare intoned.

Instead of being flippant like she wanted, Twilight forced herself to be serious. “In what way?”

“In the past year, our Vault has been penetrated by no less than six different parties. We do not understand why this is. How did you enter it?”

Twilight was startled by this news. As far as she knew, her little group of five had been the only group in several years to target the Cult. “The Vault was protected by a special magical system that involved certain combinations of touches to the door. I forget the combo now, but I had a paper from my client when I was there.”

The other pony looked depressed at that. “That is just it, Twilight Sparkle. A month before your arrival, we had that system destroyed and the vault sealed, literally sealed. Nopony should have been able to get in except for the Master.”

The lavender unicorn frowned even further than before. “I can see now why you’ve been pursuing ponies so avidly. I truly hope you believe me, Miss…”

The green unicorn pushed off her hood, and a whitish mane greeted Twilight. “You can call me Horn. Behind me is Wing and Hoof. And I believe you, captain Twilight Sparkle, because I have to. If you broke the orb, then we could not get to the bottom of this mystery. I want to hire your crew, miss Twilight.”

Twilight would have found the situation amusing were it not downright deadly. The reason her ship had been in the Cult’s vault was to steal a valuable artifact in the first place. Now the very group they had stolen from was hiring them to investigate how they and other thieves had done it.

Unfortunately, they already had a job. “I apologize… Horn, but we’re already currently employed. We’re out here to-“

“Explore Torres Island, yes, we know. We had eyes all over Crest. We’re prepared to offer you twice the Zebra was paying.” Horn seemed confident. Bits usually changed the minds of most ponies.

“We don’t operate like that, Miss Horn. When we agree to a job, we do it.” Twilight’s frown straightened into a thin line, determined. “No amount of Bits can buy a reputation.”

Horn nodded, expecting this answer. “If you had taken the bits, we would have likely fired you immediately. We need somepony who-“

Twilight cut her off. “I’ll work for you after this job. But if I’m going to take orders, it’s going to be without stupid tests like that. Do you hear me?”

Twilight could afford to be more forward, now that she was being offered a job she knew she was the only pony who could do it.

“Understandable. We will refrain from doing so in the future. Okay then, Twilight Sparkle, captain of the Free Mare – we will agree to hire you after your current job.”

“How do you propose to meet afterward? Am I to-“

It was Horn that interrupted this time. “You misunderstand, captain. We are coming with you. Free of charge, we will assist your exploration of the Island. It is to our benefit that we speed the completion of your current task.”

Twilight stared, and then nodded. “Okay. Let’s go. Only a day or two there, according to ‘the zebra’.”

The two parties separated. Twilight’s horn glowed, and the extension holding the Cult’s ship to theirs retracted. “Applejack, get this boat turned around!”

“Yes, ma’am!” The earth pony yelled. She dropped her weaponry and galloped to the Pilot Deck. The ship soon turned around, and found itself behind the Cult’s ship. Now that she had a better look, she found the ship’s name emblazoned on the side – The Nimbus.

Made sense.

It was then that Twilight felt her heartbeat finally slow. She realized that adrenaline had been pumping through her, and just now was she relaxing.

They had avoided what could have been a deadly fight. Now they had to get along with this fanatical cult for the several days they would explore the Island without starting anything.

Twilight grimaced. It was going to be trouble. She didn’t think they were out of the hot water yet.

Pinkie, nearby, chuckled. “Oh Twilight, you’re so funny.”

Twilight stared at the pink earth pony, but wrote it off as Pinkie being Pinkie.

A day or two until Torres.

Why did it feel like these were going to be the last two normal days of her life?

New Soil

Twilight stared over the stern of the Free Mare at Torres Island. The island was a wild place – full of dark trees. It bothered Twilight. Not the vibe it gave off, or the size, or how it had been undiscovered – no, where it was located bothered her.

According to her map, Twilight could see that Torres Island was directly above where Everfree Forest was located before the flood. This, of course, should have been impossible – Everfree had been the same height as the neighboring Ponyville, and Ponyville had been sunk. There was no explanation as to how this island could exist.

“I don’t like this,” Rarity said behind her.

Twilight turned to the white unicorn and nodded, a concerned look on her face. “Everfree. It’s impossible, but there it is. We’ve always known that Everfree is… different. I’m not sure we’ll ever know why, but we need to map it. Zecora asked us and is paying us to do it. Let’s go talk to the troops.”

Twilight and Rarity trotted back toward the main deck, and looked at the dozen ponies beneath them.

“Alright folks,” Twilight started, “this is how it is. Torres is a pretty big island. We don’t know how, but it may be connected to the Everfree forest somehow.” This statement caused several gasps to pop up. “So. This is the way we’re doing it, in order to spend the least amount of time possible there. We’re going to split up into four groups – three are going to explore, and the fourth will stay here as backup. Got it?”

The ponies below nodded. “I’ve already decided the groups. I’ve enchanted four new maps to be connected – they will map out everything the holder sees, and will map out what the other maps are showing. This way we’ll be able to find each other easily. So. Here’s the groups.”

Twilight hopped down, and began pointing. “AJ and Fluttershy, you’re with me. Sweetie, Cheerilee and Pinkie are the second group. The third group will consist of Rainbow, Mac, and Bloom. The rest of you will stay here in case of emergency. Got it?”

The groups separated, and stood at attention again, waiting for Twilight’s word. “Each of the expeditionary groups will be joined by a member of the Cult of Fog, for help and to foster some sort of camaraderie. I expect everypony to get along nicely,” Twilight said, staring at the groups. “The Nimbus and her crew are going to be our employers. I want to get along well.”

She walked forward and retrieved four canvas sheets, and focused on them. Her horn glowed, and the canvas pages took on a rough sketch of the Island. She handed these out to certain ponies for each group, keeping one for herself. “Cheerilee and Rainbow are the leaders of their respective groups. Got it? Good. Let’s move,” Twilight ordered.

The three exploration groups entered a couple of smaller boats connected to the mare, and began floating to the Island. A boat exited the Nimbus as well, and all four boats headed for the sandy beach ahead.

As they arrived, they could see that there was quite a bit of wildlife in the forests ahead of them. It made Twilight nervous. The resemblance to Everfree was uncanny.

The groups approached each other. The envoys from the Nimbus were, in fact, Horn, Wing and Hoof. The three separated into the Mare’s groups without a word. Wing joined Rainbow, Hoof joined Cheerilee, and Horn joined Twilight.

“Alright. Here we go. You have any trouble, just hit your map really hard and we’ll come running at the sound it makes.”

The groups nodded and separated. Twilight went Northeast, Applejack trekked to the Northwest, and Rainbow led her group to the West.

Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash was exasperated. She hated exploration jobs – they were so BORING! Taking ponies or supplies was much more interesting, because you had more action. They’d explored an island before, and the only thing they had found was a bunch of monkeys and birds and bugs and all sorts of stupid stuff.

“C’mon guys, let’s get this done so we can go do whatever these guys want,” Rainbow said, pointing at Wing.

“Speaking o’ that, how come y’all want to hire us after we pulled that job?” Apple Bloom asked Wing.

The gray pegasus simply looked at the mare. “We need help.”

He sounded as if the words were strained, like they were distasteful to say. Rainbow didn’t care, talking to the clients was Twi’s job. “Bloomer, dude’s got his job to do. Don’t complicate it for him by makin’ him talk about it.”

Apple Bloom looked up at the cyan mare flying above them. “Yeah, well, it’s gonna be pretty borin’ if we’re just gonna walk through the island all silent-like. That may be fine for mah brother, but Ah like to do somethin’ more than just walk.”

Rainbow just rolled her eyes. She couldn’t help still thinking of Apple Bloom as a little filly trying to earn her Cutie Mark. Hay, she still was when they’d left the crusaders on Canter Island a while ago.

“Whatever, Bloomer. Sorry, Wing, she’s a talker. You don’t have to pay attention to her if you don’t want.”

Wing smiled. “That’s fine, Rainbow Dash. Just because I’m part of an enigmatic cult doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the company of other ponies.”

Rainbow simply shrugged and kept flying, occasionally looking at her map, watching three trails snake across the island on the canvas.

Cheerilee

Cheerilee walked forward with her head held high. The island was peaceful so far, and the forest unthreatening, so she reminisced about her past.

She still remembered vividly the time she had spent as a schoolteacher in Ponyville. She glanced back at Sweetie Belle as she thought of it – oh, how the children grew.

Of course, she’d still been a teacher after the flood, even if she’d had to move to Canter Island to do so. It had been the first island settled by ponies after the Flood, and she’d found a lot of work, continuing the education of displaced fillies and colts, including Sweetie Belle and her classmates.

That’d changed, of course, when Twilight had given her the offer that had changed her life. Continue to teach a dwindling amount of pupils (many were travelling to other Islands or moving to Canterlot), or travel with the Free Mare. It had taken her only a few moments to choose, and she hadn’t once regretted the decision.

She had become somewhat of a “Second Mate,” though Twilight had only designated a “First Mate,” Rarity. It seemed like the Captain always came to her when she needed to know something about the crew that she didn’t want to ask directly, so Cheerilee had made it a point to always know that information.

Cheers, that’s what everypony called her now. She’d hated it at first, a nickname given to her by Rainbow Dash, but it’d grown on the mare.

She looked back at the trio of ponies silently following her. She didn’t know Twilight’s purpose in bringing this group together, but supposed that the captain was trying to open some ponies up to each other.

Being an academic, she was naturally curious about Hoof and the cult he was a part of. She’d heard of it before – before even the Flood. Its home had been White Mountain, now Fog Island, so it hadn’t moved since the Flood. Cheerilee slowed a bit, and came closer to the brown earth pony.

“So, Hoof, what can you tell me about the Cult of Fog?”

He looked at her, disdain in his eyes. “What does the teacher wish to know?”

Cheerilee shook her head, surprised. “How did you know I was a teacher?”

“It’s a part of you. I can see it clear as day. The way you think while you walk, the way you awkwardly asked the first question confirmed it. You’re used to answering questions, not asking them.”

Cheerilee frowned, not sure if she was going to like their new party member. “Okay. So. What can you tell me about the Cult?”

Hoof sighed. “The Cult is old. Very old. Hundreds of years, we’ve watched Equestria grow, making predictions, finding things out. You could say that we have been pure academics until recent history. White Mountain was a secluded place.”

“I’d imagine,” Cheerilee said. “White Mountain was constantly covered in snowfall. It’s a wonder any information about your group left its confines at all.”

“I don’t know what our original purpose was, if it wasn’t simply learning. Then the Great Flood arrived, and it made White Mountain habitable. It was inevitable that ponies would reach it, so we changed the name to Fog Island, after our order, and invited groups there. I don’t know where the Orb of Clouds came from, but apparently it helped our master be able to tell what kind of weather was coming. It’s how we became a part of society.”

Cheerilee processed this information, and was surprised to hear Pinkie ask a question. She was normally quieter when it came to their employers. For some reason, being paid money by ponies put Pinkie off if she didn’t know them well.

“Um, Mister Hoof, if you don’t mind me asking, why is your name Hoof? It doesn’t seem like a normal name for a pony.”

“No, mare, it is a perfectly legitimate question. When one ascends to the upper echelon of the Cult, one gives up their birth name in order to assume the anonymity of observation. We simply learned and reported. Giving up a part of our identity lets us use more objectivity.” Hoof said this with an air that Cheerilee couldn’t identify.

She was learning a lot. She’d have to relate this information to the Captain when she got the chance. Thinking about it, Cheerilee grabbed the map out of her saddlebag and looked at it. She saw the three little lines snaking about it, and wondered why Zecora had come to the Free Mare to do this job when the Royal Fleet could have done so.

Twilight Sparkle

“So Horn, what do you think of this island?”

Twilight, unlike her counterparts, was legitimately interested in learning about their new employers in a personal way.

The green unicorn looked at Twilight and grimaced, knowing that there would be no respite if she didn’t get along with the captain of the Free Mare.

“It’s interesting. Impossible, but interesting. We haven’t come across anything that links it to Everfree save for the location. It seems like a normal place to me.”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, it’s just so odd. It screams ‘wrong’ but it doesn’t feel threatening or strange at all.”

“Maybe that’s because the entire world functions like Everfree did, Twi,” Applejack said.

Twilight considered it, and nodded. “That could be it. Everfree used to be different from the rest of the areas, but now that everything has its own weather, and the sun and moon control themselves, Everfree is just like everywhere else.”

Horn nodded, if only to contribute. She really wasn’t interested in whys, just hows.

“Well, if it’s all normal, that’s a blessing. We can get this done fast, and… what is that?”

Twilight stopped, causing Applejack, Horn and Fluttershy to stop as well. The lavender unicorn pointed a hoof towards a large opening in a huge boulder in a clearing.

“That’s… odd…” She said.

Fluttershy backed up a little bit. “Twilight, why don’t we just mark the scary, mysterious rock on the map, and keep going?”

Twilight was about to blow her off, but stopped, staring at the boulder. “You know what, Fluttershy? I think you’re-“

Twilight was interrupted by a giant crash. Startled, all four ponies ran into the clearing for visibility. Another crash shook the area.

Twilight, a sinking feeling in her gut, looked at the boulder. Sure enough, a silhouette was making its way out of the hole.

As it walked out, crashes more frequent, all of them stepped back from it.

It finally became identifiable. It was a huge unicorn, larger than life, covered in dirty rags. Behind it dragged a huge, oversized hammer, enveloped in a sickly-looking black color, its magic.

As it exited the rock, it stared at the four ponies ahead of it, and roared, showing impossibly sharp teeth. It raised the hammer.

“Run!” Twilight said. The four ponies scattered as the hammer fell into the spot where Applejack had been, leaving an indentation in the ground.

“Well, horseapples,” Applejack said.

Understatement of the decade, thought Twilight. She needed a way out of there, and a way to keep all her friends as far away from the rock as possible. In fact, they needed to leave Torres and alert-

The hammer swung at her, and she jumped out of the way. Unfortunately, the hammer ripped into her map, causing a huge “clang” to resonate.

That clang was now going to appear in three other places, and all her friends were going to converge on the very spot she wanted them away from.

“C’mon, we gotta beat this thing!” She said, and then cried out in terror as the hammer swung down towards her. It was too late to get out of the way. Twilight closed her eyes, and waited for it to crash down on her.

But it didn’t. She looked up, and saw the hammer being held up by a blob of green magic. “Get out of there you stupid filly!” Horn yelled, sweating. Twilight ran over to the green pony and the hammer fell harmlessly.

Twilight looked at her friends. Applejack was looking for a way to buck the thing into submission. Fluttershy was hiding in a nearby tree, and Horn was tired from stopping the hammer.

Twilight had no idea what to do. Her friends were on their way here, possibly their doom. So she did the only thing she could think of. She charged the beast.

“You’re going down, you abomination!” She yelled, running at full speed.

The beast didn’t flinch at all. It just responded by raising its giant hammer again.

Twilight formulated a plan quickly. Without warning, she teleported behind the beast. With a snarl, it turned around, its hammer trailing its head.

Twilight jumped to her right and shot a beam of magic at the hammer, causing its momentum to carry it past where the beast intended. Twilight took the opportunity to shoot another beam of magic at its forehooves.

The beast, distracted with the Hammer, fell when it was hit. The hammer dropped to the ground, and it attempted to get up.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Twilight picked up the hammer with her own magic (and immediately grunted, it being extremely heavy) and held it against the beast, pinning it to the ground. The Beast tried to steal it back from her, but she held fast.

She finally rested a moment. The fight had seemed like forever, but had in reality only been a couple seconds. She knew that adrenaline was to blame – she’d been in difficult fights before.

But now she had a dilemma. She had a couple options-
1. Reason with the beast. Get it to leave and never bother them again. Unlikely to solve the problem.
2. Bind the beast. May or may not work.
3. Kill the beast. Would fix problem for sure.

But this third solution bothered her, and for good reason.

Twilight Sparkle had never killed anything, to her knowledge. Every opponent she had faced, she had incapacitated, bound, stopped, or calmed. She had never, in all her years, had to kill another being, be it sentient or not.

But this was different. This beast obviously was set there to protect this area. It would not stop. She could tell with its struggling – it didn’t care that it might die now. It kept fighting.

She had to kill it. And before her other friends got here. Applejack and Fluttershy would witness it, as well as Horn, but nopony else.

She nerved herself… and a sob broke out, and her control on the hammer threatened to fail. She had to do it… but dear sweet Celestia she didn’t want to.

But it must be done.

Twilight raised the hammer. The beast took the opportunity to begin to rise-

And the lavender unicorn, tears streaming down her face, brought the hammer down as hard as she could on the beast’s head.

It twitched once, then moved no more.

Twilight sat down hard, and began to cry as she was overwhelmed by emotion.

Decisions

Cheerilee entered the clearing at a run, stopping only when she saw the fallen beast.

That such a thing existed… it seemed to defy what she knew of the world. Though, admittedly, having one’s world destroyed by a flood that couldn’t possibly happen shook what one knew.

She looked around the clearing, and found a small group of ponies.

In the middle sat Twilight Sparkle, tears streaming out of her eyes, looking dejected. Beside her stood Fluttershy with a hoof around her. Applejack stood in front of the unicorn, speaking in low tones. The Cult unicorn, Horn, stood off to the side, staring into the forest.

Cheerilee and her small group approached the other. Twilight looked up at them, causing her companions to look up and at them as well. Cheerilee waved, and trotted to them, worried.

“What happened?” She asked as soon as she was close enough.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak – and only another sob came out.

Applejack spoke for her friend.

“We were explorin’ the area and we came upon this here rock.” At this, she pointed at the huge boulder with the entrance. “We decided that we’d move on instead of explorin’ it too, since it looked a mite dangerous.”

Applejack glanced at Twilight. “Then that… thing appeared. Looks like a Pony, but it ain’t. Some sort o’ guardian, Twilight thinks. Anyway, it had that huge hammer there, and it was lookin’ like it was there to fight us. We started to fight, but it was too much. Almost killed Twilight at one point, if it weren’t for Horn there. At that point, Twi did her thing and managed to trap the thing under its own hammer.”

Applejack looked at Cheerilee again, a sad look on her face. “It just kept fightin’. It wouldn’t stop. So Twi decided… decided that she had to kill it. Ah think she wanted it to fall only on her own shoulders, the way she’s breakin’ up. So she did it, so it wouldn’t harm anypony. It’s hurtin’ her on the inside, havin’ to kill that thing.”

Cheerilee used a moment to take it all in. She trotted to her captain, who watched her approach.

“Captain. I know how it must feel for you. I had to kill a Timber Wolf almost twenty years ago in order to protect a filly who should have never been in Everfree. I know how it is, and I’m glad you’re having this reaction. It’s this reason that I accept you as my Captain. Thank you, Twilight Sparkle, for doing this to protect us.”

Without giving Twilight time to respond, she trotted back to the beast’s corpse and began to examine it.

Twilight watched the pink pony go to the corpse to study it. She didn’t know that Cheerilee had also had to kill something in her lifetime. She realized that yes, though killing was horrible, sometimes it had to be done. Not often, but sometimes. She gave a grim, ironic smile, and wiped her tears. She turned around and hugged Fluttershy.

“Thanks, Fluttershy.”

“Don’t mention it, Twilight. I hate to see anypony cry.”

Twilight smiled, her tears drying up. She stood and walked to the beast.

As she arrived next to Cheerilee, the earth pony turned to her. “Thanks, Cheers,” she said, putting a hoof on her shoulder.

“You’re welcome, Captain. Sometimes a pony just needs perspective.”

At this point, Rainbow Dash flew out of the foliage, a fighting look on her face. “Who’s here? Where’s – what the hay is that thing?”

Her entourage popped out of the woods behind her, similarly surprised.

“That thing,” Twilight said, “Is the beast that tore my map and nearly killed all of us. All in defense of I don’t know what.”

Rainbow was going to comment, but noticed Twilight’s mussed-up face. “You okay, Twi?” she asked in a subdued voice, and landed next to the unicorn.

Twilight took a large breath, and stared at the beast. “No. But I will be. Just gotta keep on, right now.”

She trotted forward, leaving Rainbow to watch her, silent.

“Cheers, you find anything out?”

The mare looked back at Twilight, and down again.

“It’s a pony. Carnivorous, but a Pony nonetheless. I don’t know whether it was fouled by some spell or born this way, but either way it is dead now. Thank goodness. Something like this could only do others harm, Captain. But now you have a decision to make.”

Twilight realized that the earth pony was right. Her own rule – during exploration, if they came across something exceedingly dangerous, they would abandon the mission immediately and hope for the best with the client.

Or simply keep pushing on in the face of danger. Explore. Get the job done.

It was a choice between safety and reputation… and often, on the high seas, a good reputation WAS safety.

But, Twilight thought, this was here and now. Exploring Torres Island might be the worst possible thing for them to do right now.

She decided. “Okay everypony.”

All the ponies looked at her, paying close attention.

“We’re leaving. This Island obviously holds something incredibly dangerous, and it’s not our place to deal with that. We can leave that to my brother’s forces.”

Though nopony noticed, Horn’s eyes widened at that statement.

She turned to face Horn, who had hidden her expression by then. “I apologize if it seems like we’re backing out of an agreement. You can leave us if you like. But I’m not exposing my crew to whatever this Island wants to keep hidden.”

Horn shook her head. “No. I saw that thing. I agree with you wholeheartedly – this is no place for freelancers. We will accompany you to Crest, and begin your employ after.”

Twilight nodded without expression, though was inwardly cheering that they still had a job lined up.

“Let’s go, everypony.”

The trek through the forest was uneventful, thankfully. They left the beast to rot in front of the boulder, never to rise again, its hammer buried in the thing’s skull.

Their arrival on Crest was uneventful, but it made Twilight nervous. She had to go confront Zecora with the fact that they had left the job mostly undone, and give the zebra what they had with what could possibly be no pay.

She decided to just take Rarity this time, and leave everypony else on the ship, since they’d be leaving soon anyway.

The two of them wove through the crowds. Since they were there later in the day, the workers were off now, and travelling around the bustling town.

Twilight found the tavern she had initially met the zebra in, the Sea Tap. Upon entering, they found it filled to the brim. A quick check revealed that Zecora was not present. Twilight trotted over to the barkeep, Rarity behind her.

“Excuse me sir, but would you happen to know where I could find Zecora?”

He looked at her with mild interest. “Zecora?” he asked.

“A zebra. She was in here last week.”

“Ah, her. I think she’s staying in the Luxury Bale. Fancy hotel at the far side of town. Dunno if you’ll find ‘er there, though. I hear she does a lot of wanderin’ around.

“Thank you, sir,” Twilight said, putting a bit on the counter. The barkeep swept it up with practiced ease, and gave the mare a wink. The two unicorns left the building.

“The Luxury Bale, he said? Sounds magnificent. I haven’t slept in a proper bed in… when did we last stop at Windfall, dear?” Rarity asked.

Twilight smiled as they began walking. “Nearly seven months ago.”

Rarity’s eyes widened, and she gave a mock gasp. “No wonder my back hurts! My poor, cultured self must be in bed-withdrawal! Those cots we have on the Mare cannot be considered proper beds!”

Twilight laughed, and after a moment of fake pouting, Rarity laughed too.

“You know Rarity, couple years ago, you wouldn’t have been joking.”

“I know, Twilight. It’s just… it took me such a long time to get used to the roving life. I so wanted to, but just couldn’t!”

The two mares wound through the marketplace and entered a residential area.

“But then I just realized that I was being silly. I could never settle in Canterlot, knowing you lot were running out here. My place is with all of you. I think maybe I learned to laugh at myself, then.”

Twilight laughed at that, too. “Glad to hear it. I don’t want a snob as my First Mate.”

Rarity smiled and tossed her mane. “Yes, well, that doesn’t mean I can’t still keep up appearances. And I’m glad to hear you laughing too, Twilight. That beast really bothered you, didn’t it? It sounded dreadful, but I truly admire you for what you did.”

Twilight smiled, a genuine smile, and glanced at the white unicorn. “Thank you, Rarity. Oh, we’re here.”

Twilight looked up and stopped. A fancy-looking building stared back at them, “The Luxury Bale” painted near the top and by the door. Twilight tossed her mane and entered the building.

Followed by Rarity, she was greeted by a large lobby filled with high-society types.

Rarity tapped her shoulder and pointed to the reception desk. There stood Zecora, chatting with the receptionist.

They approached the zebra, who turned at their approach.

“I see my friends from Ponyville, whom I have employed for their skill. What news do you bring, and what is of import to the King?”

Zecora motioned for them to follow.

“We have some bad news, Zecora,” Twilight said to the zebra. Zecora waited to reply until they entered her room, a bare-looking place.

“What is this bad news? I hope it will not give me the blues.”

“I don’t know, but here it is.”

Twilight relayed all that had happened on Torres, excluding the Cult, and handed her the map of the little bit they had seen.

Zecora mulled it over. “I do understand your plight. Unfortunately, some others may not have my sight.”

Zecora grabbed a bag of bits from a drawer and poured it out. She separated half of them out, and scooped the other half into the bag. She handed this to Twilight. “Here is your share. I am glad you decided to have a care. Of the job and your safety, the latter is of more import. At any other thought, I give a loud snort.”

“I understand, Zecora. I’d stay longer, but I have another job we need to start.”

“Good luck, dear mare – please, keep your travels to waters fair.”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “I’ll do my best. Tell my brother I said hi.”

“This I will relay, though there may be a slight delay.”

Twilight and Rarity left the room.

Rarity smiled and giggled a bit as they left the hotel. “I simply adore her rhymes. They can be hard to keep up with, but they’re so fun!”

Twilight smiled. “I’m just glad she’s doing okay. I like to see everypony doing okay. If it were just one pony, that Flood would have destroyed everything we held dear. But because we have each other, we’re more than that.”

Rarity nodded. “We persevere. We made our own lives. And now we carve our own path.”

Twilight jingled the bag of bits. “Yes we do, Rarity. This we will continue to do.”

The mares continued back to the docks, spirits high, ready to investigate the Cult’s mystery when they returned home.

Home to the Free Mare.

Derailed

Twilight and Rarity stood, mouths agape. The harbor, in the twenty minutes it had taken them to leisurely return from Zecora, had filled with ships. These ships, however, had blue sails. Ships from the Severed Isles.

The Free Mare was nowhere in sight, which pleased Twilight. This meant that they had followed her contingency plan – head to one of the concealed bays around the island if trouble reared its ugly head. Crest had only two, so the pair would only have to check those two relatively close areas.

Twilight and Rarity looked on. All over the harbor, small skiffs were streaming from the intruding ships toward shore. Closer inspection revealed that all of the skiffs had half a dozen or so armed ponies in them.

Her eyes widened in realization. The Isles had jumped from isolationism to expansionism, and Crest was in its sights. And so were they, being on the Island.

War was obviously brewing. Somehow, Twilight had to get word of this to her brother. But how?

Zecora.

“Rarity, we have to go get Zecora off this island. Who knows what they’ll do if they catch an Equestrian spy?”

“I agree, Twilight. Let’s get her. Which cove are we checking first when we do?”

“We’ll head to the eastern cove. It’s closer.”

Rarity nodded and the two unicorns took off at a gallop. They arrived at the Luxury Bale in only a fraction of their previous time, panting from their frantic run. The door parted at their knock, revealing a surprised and confused-looking Zecoa.

“What has transpired, for you to return so tired?” the zebra asked.

“Zecora,” Twilight began saying between gasps, “you have to come with us. The island is being invaded. You’ve gotta come.”

Zecora eyed the pair. “I trust you, my friends. But I ask – my leaving brings about what ends?”

“Zecora, please just trust us for now!”

Zecora hesitated a moment, then joined the two unicorns. The three mares gathered together and fell into a canter to the east. The easier pace allowed Twilight to speak.

“The Severed Isles have sent ships to Crest. They’re deploying troops on land.

Zecora looked startled. “So soon? Ah, it is just as well. Nothing I have learned of late has boded well.”

Rarity looked sharply at the other mare. “You knew this was going to happen? Why didn’t you warn anypony?”

“Nopony could be bothered to believe strange, old me – none would allow themselves to see.’

Twilight looked troubled. “This is going to mean war, isn’t it? The islands are going to have to choose sides or be gobbled up.”

Zecora gave the lavender unicorn a long glance. “That may be so. Tell me, girls, where do we go?”

Twilight spoke up again. “We figured it wouldn’t be good for an Equestrian spy to be captured by the enemy, so we’re taking you out of here. Our ship left port for one of the concealed coves around the island the moment there was trouble.”

“I very much appreciate this. Getting passage on my own would have been hit-or-miss.”

For another half hour, the three mares continued east through the forests of Crest Island. Finally, the trees ended and they found themselves staring at two ships – one being the Free Mare with its soft, red sails and the other being the Cult’s Nimbus.

“Thank Celestia,” Twilight exclaimed. A small party of ponies on the beach saw them and waved them over. The mares trotted down to them.

“Twilight, Rarity! Zecora?” Rainbow dash said as they approached. Before Rainbow could say anything else, Applejack trotted forward.

“It’s mighty good to see ya again, Zecora. Glad you three are safe. Soon as we spotted them ships, Ah hightailed it outta there and Dash flew over to the Nimbus to alert ‘em. Waited here, as per orders, Twi.”

“Good. Let’s get going. We have to get out of these guys’ path.”

“Alright. Then let’s get everypony back out at sea.”

Twilight turned to Horn, who was standing not far away speaking to Wing. “So? Where first?”

Horn looked at her. “Back to Fog. I want you to take a look at the Vault and tell me what’s different.”

Twilight nodded at the green unicorn. “Sounds good. Zecora,” she said, turning to the zebra, “You think you can find passage to Canter Island from Fog?”

Zecora nodded. With that decided, all of them travelled to their respective ships and set sail once more, leaving the invaded Crest behind.

Several days later

Twilight stared at the harbor from a safe distance, the Mare and the Nimbus staying far away from the Island.

This was all-out war. It was obvious. Crest, now Fog. All around Fog Island were ships bearing the symbol of Canter Island. Apparently she didn’t have to tell her brother that there was trouble – he already knew, and was pushing back.

Sighing sadly, Twilight nerved herself and teleported over to the Nimbus. Horn turned around at the noise, and frowned at the lavender unicorn.

“What’s the holdup? This shouldn’t affect us.”

Closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. A headache was coming on, and these problems would only make it worse.

“It shouldn’t. But it does. The Free Mare can’t go ashore. I already have my crew swapping out to white sails, but our ship is unique.”

“Why can’t you go ashore? What’s the problem?”

Twilight sighed. She hoped that her problem would have been avoidable in these waters, but the upcoming conflict was going to make that unavoidable. “The Free Mare and her crew are not welcome in Equestrian territory. We refused to be assimilated into their army and deserted when we were forced to.”

Horn frowned, and brought up the hood on her cloak. “I can see why this affects the job, then. But I need you in that vault. There’s nothing preventing my ship from going on to the Island.”

“There’s another problem,” Twilight groaned. “We’ve been at sea for the better part of a month now with no fresh infusion of supplies. We need food.”

Horn thought a moment. “Well, if we disguised a few of you as initiates, we can get you on the island without question. We could also pick up extra supplies and bring them to the Mare. But it’ll have to stay out of sight.”

Twilight nodded. “We’ll do that, then. Hold on, I’ll be back.”

With that, Twilight teleported back over to her ship. Her crew was waiting on the upper deck, where she had asked.

“Listen up. We have to go fast. A couple of us are going to Fog to investigate, get some supplies, and see what’s going on. The rest of you will keep on the water, away from the Equestrian ships on the other side of the Island. No arguments – this is how it’s happening.”

Nopony said anything – good.

“Fluttershy, you and Cheerilee are coming with me. The rest of you are staying on the ship. Zecora, you’re coming too. You can catch a ride with one of the Equestrian ships.”

The three ponies mentioned walked forward and stood by Twilight.

“Anything goes wrong, you all know the plan. Good luck,” She said, and teleported the four mares over to the Nimbus.

Upon arrival, she found several dull green cloaks awaiting them.

“Once we reach harbor, you won’t be allowed to speak until we get back to our home,” Horn told them. She then looked at Zecora. “What excuse do we have for transporting the zebra?”

Zecora was about to speak up, but Cheerilee spoke first. “Perhaps she asked for passage with you? Not too far from the truth.”

Horn considered it, then nodded. “Makes sense.”

The Nimbus brought its anchor up and made its way toward the island as Twilight, Fluttershy and Cheerilee donned their cloaks. Nervous, the three mares looked around the ship as they grew closer.

Suddenly, another ship, faster than nearly every other ship on the water, appeared on the horizon. It grew closer impossibly fast – as if something more than just wind was propelling it.

“Oh, no, please, Celestia no.”

Twilight’s eyes were like dinner plates – one of the worst things possible was happening. She looked around and didn’t see the Free Mare anywhere in sight – good.

Everypony on the Nimbus watched as a superfast vessel passed them.

“The Equestria,” Twilight muttered.

Cheerilee and Fluttershy glanced at each other, and Zecora only looked at the ship.

“This is going to present a problem,” Twilight said to Horn.

“What is it,” the unicorn asked, getting annoyed at the complicatedness of the situation.

“That’s the Equestria, fastest ship in the fleet. Only one pony can captain it.”

“Well? What’s the problem?”

“The problem, miss Horn, is that the one pony that can captain that ship is the King himself. And if the king is coming, that means they’re going to have to check out the ship when we get to the Island. They’ll inspect everypony coming to land. Nopony should recognize us, but it’s just an unneeded complication.”

“We’ll deal with trouble if we get to it,” Horn said, dismissing it.

The three fugitive ponies paced nervously until they finally arrived at Fog Island. The island wasn’t huge, but the harbor was full. Counting the Nimbus, the harbor that usually held no more than 5 or 6 ships was now home to 13 ships.

As the Nimbus prepared its boarding ramp, several soldiers arrived below. They moved up the ramp when it was ready, and Horn approached them.

“What is your business?” One of them asked, eyeing the crew in their strange cloaks. Twilight, Fluttershy and Cheerilee all kept their hoods down.

Zecora approached the soldiers at this point.

“I have been travelling with this band – for they are the inhabitants of this little land.”

One of the soldiers in the group started, and nudged the one who had spoken.

“Sir, that’s Zecora. I recognize her.”

The one who had spoken motioned the zebra over, who complied. “Thank you for bringing an invaluable source of information back to us. May I inquire as to your identity?”

Horn spoke this time. “We are the Cult of Fog, returning after a voyage to Crest Island. “

The soldier seemed to recognize the name. “Carry on,” he said, and the group left the ship and went back to the main force of soldiers.

A moment after, Horn motioned to the group behind her. “Let us go. No need to dally.”

Horn, followed by ten ponies, made her way down the ramp. However, at the end of the pier connected to the Island, a voice rang out that made the three from the Free Mare flinch.

“The Cult of Fog! Wonderful!”

Shining Armor, king of Equestria, flanked by Queen Cadance and a slew of guards, called out to them. One does not ignore that call, so Horn and the rest of the ponies following her turned to face the pair, bowing down.

He waved a hoof. “No need for that. I simply want to thank you for returning a valuable friend to me and to meet a group I admire. Who, may I ask, leads this little band?”

Twilight, Cheerilee, Fluttershy and the other three initiates all kept their hoods down, heads shrouded.

Horn stepped forward. “I do, your majesty. I am Horn, and I am simply bringing my companions back to our home after some time at sea. I have initiates to train.”

Shining Armor smiled. “Ah, good to see new ponies interested in the pursuit of knowledge.”

He stepped forward and looked closely at the six in initiates’ robes. Luckily, Horn was able to grab the King’s attention.

“We prefer to keep them humble, so as to let them know that one must put oneself aside for the pursuit of pure knowledge.”

“Ah, quite noble! I agree that… dear, what’s wrong?”

At this, Twilight looked up just enough to see what was going on.

Cadance was staring at her, eyes wide. Twilight did her best not to flinch, and realized that a little bit of her mane was sticking out of her cloak. Her mane, unfortunately, was quite distinctive – she’d gotten lucky that her brother had ignored it. Not so lucky, however, that Cadance would have.

Shining Armor followed her gaze and his eyes also went wide when he recognized his sister.

Twilight could only wonder what was going through the mind of her brother and sister-in-law.

“Nothing, dear, just thought I recognized one of the initiates. I was mistaken.”

Cadance had recovered, but was now looking sternly at Twilight. Shining Armor looked like he wanted to say something more, but saw the look in his wife’s eyes, and stopped. He glanced at his sister again.

Twilight didn’t know exactly what the Queen was thinking, but she could read that gaze.

It told her to “Go away from here, far, far away.”

Something Twilight would be glad to do as soon as possible.

“Well. I’m sorry to have taken your time. Please, go on. Nopony will trouble you,” Shining Armor said, regaining his composure.

Horn only nodded as their group moved on. Twilight gave a glance to her relatives, trying to convey her thousand “Thank-you” thoughts in one look. Then they were past, and Twilight could focus on getting her heart to slow down.

CX1 - Setting Sail

Hey everypony! As promised, a bonus chapter! It's no longer a spoiler that Twiley's in trouble with Equestria, so I present to you - the escape!

As a backstory, Twilight and her Crew are bombarded by those who see her as a detriment to the King's image every time they return to Canter Island with annoyances and have to constantly fight their way out with words and bits. They finally pulled the ultimate on the ship. Nopony but the Mane six are on the crew at this point in their lives.

SIX YEARS PRIOR TO CURRENT EVENTS

Twilight Sparkle wandered the halls of Canterlot Castle, mulling things over. For some reason, she didn’t like coming here anymore – maybe something in her had changed following the Flood. She didn’t know, nor did she care. All she knew that she was at a crossroads in her life.

She had to choose – run and become an outcast of the only world she’d ever felt at home in, or become just another pawn. The choice was harder than one would think – Twilight loved her friends, her family. She could have a good life here on Canter Island. But, on the other hand, she loved her ship. For the past several years she had lived a wonderful life on the seas with her friends on her ship, the Free Mare.

But you couldn’t have one and the other. It had been made clear – the Equestrian military needed her ship, and her relatives could do nothing. Although Shining Armor and Cadance were, in fact, the ruling monarchy, they didn’t have full control. Leading a recently destroyed kingdom was no easy task, and they needed support, especially from the military.

“Dear, what’s wrong?”

Rarity had seen the troubled mare pacing, and had decided to make herself known.

“This decision is one of the hardest in my life, Rarity. My decision here will affect the rest of my life.”

Rarity walked up to the lavender unicorn and looked closely at Twilight.

“Dear, I just want you to know that, whatever your decision, the five of us are behind you. We may not have the Elements to connect us anymore, but we will always be friends.”

Twilight smiled a moment, but that fell to a frown. “That’s just it now. My decision isn’t just mine – it will affect five of the most important ponies in my life. I could make them soldiers or outlaws, something none of us had ever dreamed of becoming.”

Rarity only looked at her friend, not knowing what to say other than what she already had.

“I think I’m going to talk to my brother. Thanks, Rarity. I needed somepony to talk to.”

“Anytime, Captain,” Rarity replied with a smile. She pushed Twilight in the direction of the king’s leisure room. “Shining Armor is resting. Court is over for the day. Go ahead, dear.”

Giving Rarity another warm glance, Twilight started off. The hallways still seemed cold and gray to her, and nothing helped her find a decision.

The halls became more populated as she approached the center of the castle. She nodded and said brief greetings as she passed various ponies.

Finally, Twilight found herself at the door. Initially she reached a hoof out to open the door, but thought better of it and knocked.

“Come in,” her brother’s voice sounded. Twilight entered and found her brother, her sister-in-law and Pinkie Pie in the room. Cadance was watching Shining Armor play a game of Checkers with Pinkie Pie. Of course, Pinkie Pie was winning and Twilight’s brother was scowling at the board.
“I swear, if I hadn’t been watching the entire game, I’d say Pinkie Pie had cheated. Nopony else can beat Shining at checkers,” Cadance said, amused.

“Hi, Twilight!” Pinkie Pie said, jumping up from the game and trotting over to her friend.

“Rarity said you were awful blue today, so I made you a cupcake!” With that, the pink earth pony grabbed a cupcake out of nowhere and offered it to Twilight She didn’t question where the treat hat originated, and just took it with her magic.

“Thanks, Pinkie. I just can’t seem to come to a decision.”`

Shining armor looked around, and then shot a pink bubble around them.

“Don’t know who might be listening. I just want you to know, Twiley, whatever you choose I’m privately behind you. Even if I have to publicly denounce you if you choose to desert.”

Twilight had already relayed her thoughts to hear brother the day before.

Twilight began pacing inside the pink bubble.

“I just don’t know. What to do. I’m leaning towards deserting, but I’m afraid I’d never be able to come back.”

Shining Armor nodded. “I can’t guarantee that you ever would. But I’ve been a guard, and I can tell a soldier is worse a life than that. You’d never learn to like it. I think, were I in your position, little sis, that I’d go away far away. Living with a lifetime of longing is better than a lifetime of regret.”

Twilight mulled it over, sat down. The two decisions rang out in her head. She couldn’t let the military have her ship without her captaining it – it just felt wrong. She was just tired of having to make tough decisions. Every time she returned to Canterlot, it seemed somepony wanted to take advantage of them. Somepony had taken a huge favor here against the six mares, and it was costing Twilight.

Leave to never return, or stay and never leave? Those were her choices. And they stunk.

Pinkie Pie moved forward and laid a hoof on her back. “Whatever decision you make is the right one, Twilight. Stop taking us into account.”

And when the pink mare said that, Twilight made her choice. The bubbly pony had finally hammered in what Rarity had tried to tell her. Her friends were leaving the decision up to her, so she should stop worrying about them. And if it was only herself to worry about, she had made her choice a long time ago.

Twilight got up and walked over to the King and Queen of Equestria and hugged them both. Both of them had tears in their eyes as they realized she had made her decision.

“Goodbye, Shining. Goodbye, Cadance. I hope I get to see you again in peace.”

They only smiled sadly, not trusting their voices.

Twilight looked up at Pinkie. “Pinkie, go find everypony else and get them to the Mare. We’re leaving.”

The earth pony smiled and saluted. “Aye aye, Cap’n!” She said, and ran off. Shining armor let the bubble down to let her past. Twilight made her way to the door, and glanced back.

“Goodbye,” she said.

Both her brother and sister-in-law nodded.

She walked out and began a trot towards Admiral Big Wave. She found him in his office.

“Admiral, I’ve decided to enter your service. May I and my Crew go down to my ship to prepare it?”

The admiral looked at her, eyes suspicious. “Kind of late in the night for that, isn’t it?”

Twilight shook her head. “We’ve been up all night anyway. We need something to do.”

The admiral nodded. “Fine. Here’s the pendant. The guards see this, they‘ll let you and your crew in to the harbor. Glad to know you’ve made the right decision.”

Twilight nodded, and left the room, pendant in front of her. She felt bad for lying to such a good pony, but knew there was no other way.

She left Canterlot Castle and made her way to the harbor. She was joined by Pinkie and Applejack.

“AJ was the last one. Everypony else should already be there,” Pinkie said. Twilight nodded and kept walking.

“What’s the plan, Twi?” Applejack asked.

“We’re going to try and leave the harbor without a fight. Tonight. Head to Voyage Island, try to find some work.”

Applejack and Pinkie Pie nodded. The three mares walked quietly through the streets to Canterlot, and finally the harbor came into view. The trio walked down and joined the rest of their friends wordlessly, only exchanging nods. They approached the pier to the Free Mare and were accosted by a pair of guards.

“What is your business?”

Twilight approached them and held out the pendant. “Just preparing our ships, sirs. “

The one who had spoken checked the pendant and grunted. “Alright. But don’t make too much noise – it IS the middle of the night, after all.”

Twilight and her friends boarded their ships and quietly got into position.

Twilight paced the upper deck. “Alright guys. They’re likely to send pegasus guards after us, and then a ship as soon as they can. We have to get out of here as fast as possible, with as little fuss as possible. If we’re boarded, try to just scare them off. We don’t want blood on our hooves.”

All five of her friends nodded. Twilight approached the rope securing her ship to the pier, and raised a nearby woodcutting axe.

She raised it, and nodded to Fluttershy and Rainbow dash. Her two friends let down the main sail on the mast. The two guards turned at the loud noise and shouted. Twilight brought the axe down upon the rope and ran over to Rarity. Together, both mares pushed forward on the ship with their magic to try and get it moving faster.

As the ship pulled out of the harbor, a dozen black specks flew towards the ship.

“Get ready!” Twilight yelled, grabbing one of the poles. All her friends, save Applejack, armed themselves similarly. Rainbow Dash flew out to meet the group ahead and began to wildly attack the group.

She had only brought three on herself, less than the pegasus was used to handling. The other nine made it to the ship and began to harry them. She quickly engaged one of them and brought it down with a flurry of her pole. Twilight turned and found Fluttershy in a corner with a pegasus over her, raising a large club. Twilight grabbed one of the flying ponies with her magic and smashed them into the one over Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy! Get in the Pilot deck with Applejack!”

Nodding, the terrified pegasus flew in said area, slamming the door shut behind her. Twilight checked the two she had thrown against the deck, and found them both unconscious. Looking over to her friends, she saw the rest had fallen back to the island, save for three more unconscious on the boat.

Smiling, Twilight strode to the back of the ship. None of the ships had left the harbor. They’d made a clean getaway.

“Rainbow Dash, tie those pegasi up and thrown them in the magazine. Have Fluttershy watch them. We’ll drop them off at Voyage.”

Twilight stared at the receding Canter Island as Rainbow complied with her orders. She felt a loss – they could likely never come back – but also felt a kind of freedom.

They were free. The Free Mare was on the ocean, ready to go anywhere, do anything. And Twilight Sparkle, along with her friends, were going to live their lives as their own, and only their own.

Truly, before her was an Open Sea.

Unrest

Twilight’s heart continued to work on overdrive, even after the harbor was no longer in sight.

She hadn’t seen her brother in over two years. It brought back the old hurt. She missed having a “home”. The Free Mare was her life, but at heart, she still wanted to belong somewhere. There was no certainty that she would ever go back to Canter Island, but she wanted to.

She shook it off as they approached the group of buildings that the Cult owned. Once within its borders, she motioned for Twilight and her companions to take off their hoods, so they did.

“You can speak now. I will escort the initiates to their new home. I take it you remember your way to the Vault?”

The last was said with a bit of venom.

So, Twilight thought, She hasn’t forgotten that we pulled that job. Good.

“Yes.”

She looked behind her at Fluttershy and Cheerilee, who only looked at her. “Let’s go, girls.”

The two groups parted, and Twilight found herself going deeper into the strange compound. The place itself seemed quite ominous. Though she’d been there in the past, she hadn’t had time to look around very much – theft rarely involves sightseeing.

Nopony spoke to them along the way. They probably weren’t welcome, wouldn’t be even if they hadn’t broken in a couple weeks ago. Fortunately, the Vault wasn’t far away, so they were spared more of the awkward silence.

Upon arrival at the vault, Twilight’s jaw dropped open. “That’s… not possible.”

Indeed, like Horn had said, the Vault had a Persona Seal placed upon it.

“A persona seal… that takes a lot of work.”

Cheerilee looked at Twilight while Fluttershy trotted up to inspect the seal.

“What’s a persona seal?” The earth pony asked. Twilight turned to her.

“A persona seal is an extremely powerful form of lock. It basically is a near-impenetrable lock, which only opens in the presence of the pony it’s coded to. It takes incredible amounts of energy to create, and even more to destroy. And, even then, when it’s destroyed, the pony it’s coded to feels it. It’s basically the strongest lock or barrier unicorns can perform.”

Cheerilee took that in and stared at it. She’d been one of the party that broke in, which is why Twilight had taken her on this trip. “Is it possible to move it?”

“No. That’s why I’m so confused – this wasn’t here.”

“Could their master have been inside, or opened it?” Cheerilee asked.

“No.” Twilight shook her head violently, mane flying all around. “It would still be there, just in an open formation. The barrier wasn’t there AT ALL “

Twilight walked around the seal, feeling it with her magic. Nothing was damaged or wrong with the spell – it felt normal, if such a precautionary spell could be called normal.

Horn entered the room, hood thrown over her head, hiding most of her features. “Well?”

Twilight shook her head. “This wasn’t here when we were. But if you’re telling the truth about when this was put in, that’s simply impossible. You guys would have known if it was destroyed and replaced.”

Horn nodded. “So. We have an impossibility.”

Twilight stared at the lock. “There’s only two possibilities here. One is a temporal lock on the room – meaning that we entered this room in a different TIME than the surrounding area – or that somepony found a way around a Persona Seal. Both are equally unlikely.”

She started pacing again, considering the possibilities.

Horn only watched Twilight, not being as knowledgeable about magic as the lavender mare.

“I suppose a temporal lock is actually more likely. I wouldn’t have been able to notice it. If somepony had somehow removed the Persona Seal, it would have left some sort of traceable… well, trace. But a temporal lock would require just as much energy as moving a Persona Seal, and there aren’t that many ponies out there who could cast such a spell.”

“Who could?” Horn asked.

Twilight shook her head. “I can’t be sure that these aren’t the only ponies, but I’m pretty sure I could, the King and Queen could, and Chrysalis, the changeling queen, could, if she was still around. MAYBE a showmare named Trixie, but she’s in jail in Canterlot, as far as I know.”

Horn looked disillusioned. “So you cannot make a definitive statement?”

Twilight shook her head. “There’s no way to be sure.”

Fluttershy flanked her and placed a hoof on Twilight’s back, seeking to reassure the unicorn. She knew Twilight was feeling stressed over not being able to figure out the problem. Twilight gave the pegasus a thankful smile.

Horn herself began pacing. “If you can’t –“

There was a banging on the door to the vault room.

“This is admiral Big Wave of the Equestrian Royal Navy. You are to open this door immediately under the suspicion that you are harboring known fugitives.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, and her two companions drew close. “I hate teleporting multiple ponies,” she muttered. Twilight looked at Horn.

“We have to go. Um… we need a place to go away from Equestrian forces. We’re going to have to go back to Torres Island. We’ll wait there a week.”

“How are you going to-“ Horn began to say, but she was drowned out as the three ponies disappeared with a *pop*.

“Gyaaah!”

Rainbow Dash jumped back as the three mares appeared on their ship. Cheerilee and Fluttershy stepped back from Twilight, but the lavender mare, tired from the long, multi-pony jump, slumped to the ground. She smiled weakly at the ponies around her, said “Torres… go,” and fell into unconsciousness.

When she came to, the sea was roiling beneath her. She was on a bed – her bed, in fact.

As she rose up, she felt a hoof press down on her. “Good, you’re up. But you’re also in no shape to move around.”

Twilight opened her eyes to Redheart standing above her with a stern look on her face. “You shouldn’t use such a strong spell with no notice. You should have prepared for something like that.”

Twilight smiled. “Next time, I’ll make sure that I don’t have an army on my back before I escape.”

Redheart’s stern look evaporated into a worried one.

“You didn’t escape dear, you only started running.”

Eyes wide, Twilight tried to push herself out of bed, but Redheart didn’t let her. “Several ships are following us, the Nimbus included. Rarity received a message from Horn explaining things, I’ll go get her. But you stay in bed, captain, you’re in no shape to be moving.”

Twilight nodded and sunk back down into the mattress. Shortly after Redheart’s departure, Rarity entered her cabin, worried look on her face. “Good, you’re feeling better. I worried about you, you know. Last time you did something like that, you came down with a dreadful fever.”

Twilight waved a hoof, dismissing her state. “What’s going on?”

Rarity frowned even further. “We weren’t able to escape without attracting notice. The ERN sent four ships after us, and the Nimbus followed. Horn told the ERN that we had coerced her into getting us into the vault.”

Twilight groaned. Smart mare, she thought. “How long until we arrive at the island?”

“Should be another two days. Thankfully, all the ships they sent aren’t specially equipped to run us down. Your brother’s influence, no doubt.”

Twilight snorted. “I hate running like this. Stupid. Wish we’d never had to leave Canterlot.”

Rarity gave Twilight a hug. “I know dear, so do I. We all do. But that’s past. Now, you get some rest. We’ll get you when we’re at the island.”

Twilight closed her eyes as her First Mate left her cabin. She hated lying down like this when there was work to do. If she could teleport over to the Nimbus, she could coordinate a plan. But that wouldn’t work – Twilight felt that she couldn’t even levitate a toothpick at this point. She had to figure out something.

Four ships following. The Nimbus. Torres. Somehow, they needed to lure the Equestrian ships away from them, get the Mare away, and link up with the Nimbus somewhere.

“Aarrgh!” She yelled, angry. Angry at her brother for spreading his forces. Angry at the Severed Isles for initiating this whole thing. Angry at herself for not seeing the situation before it happened.

Fluttershy’s voice called into the cabin. “Twilight, are you okay? I heard a yell.”

“I’m fine, Fluttershy. Just thinking,” she called back.

“Okay,” Fluttershy responded, and Twilight figured she had left the door, not hearing anything else.

Twilight focused on the cabin ceiling above her and the roiling sea beneath. Everything about this situation seemed hopeless. Were they finally going to be backed into a corner, unable to run from this? Though the Free Mare was not affiliated with the Equestrian government in any way other than negative, the Severed Isles would be unlikely to shelter her. In any case, she didn’t want to go there anyway – not during a time like this. The Mare had only been on two trips there, and she hadn’t cared for the attitudes of the ponies that dwelled there. Prejudiced and elitist, they were.

Twilight pounded a hoof into her pillow and rolled over. She couldn’t let her thought process get so off topic. The plan… well, the only way to get away from the ERN would be to disable their ships and sail away. But they needed to meet with the Nimbus, somehow.

Could they just sail off, some of them on the Nimbus? No, that would only attract the ships to the Nimbus and put them against the Cult. Horn wouldn’t like that.

Just then, a spark of an idea came to her. She worked it through in her mind, smiled, and closed her eyes, ready to go back to sleep. She was going to need to be rested for this.

“Twilight, get up. It’s time,” a voice said. Twilight opened her eyes to see Spike standing above her.

“Alright,” She said, getting up. She’d walked a little the day before, but was feeling nearly perfect today. This was good, because it was going to be a tense day. She’d discussed the plan with the crew, and all were in agreement. Even old Granny Smith, failing in her later years, had chipped in with enthusiasm.

She appeared on the upper deck, staring at the island. Everypony stopped talking and looked at her approach.

“Alright. This is going to be real tough, but we can do it. Separate into your groups, please.”

They all separated into three groups, ready. Granny Smith, Pinkie Pie, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Applejack, Big Macintosh, Fluttershy and Cheerilee all stood to one side. Twilight, Rarity, Spike and Redheart stood together near the middle of the ship. On the other side was Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash.

“You all know what you have to do?”

Everypony nodded, though many looked worried.

“Y’all sure about this, Twi?” Applejack asked.

“It’s the only way, AJ,” Twilight responded.

Twilight’s group moved over toward one of the landing boats and prepared it. Everypony watched in silence, uncomfortable. When it was ready, the group boarded, and Twilight took another look around the Free Mare.

“Good luck, everypony. See you in a while. We’ll be making a signal at noon, every day after a week. Be safe,” she said, and lowered the landing vessel into the water using her magic. Spike immediately began paddling towards shore, the three ponies watching the enemies’ ships warily. They couldn’t have missed the little boat at this range. Twilight turned and watched the Free Mare turn away from the island, leaving them behind.

It didn’t take them long to reach shore on Torres. In fact, it was the same stretch they had arrived at before. They brought the vessel ashore and affixed it to a nearby tree, hoping the soldiers would just leave it there.

“Three ships tore off towards our ship, Twilight,” Rarity informed her, looking at them. “The Nimbus and another ship are still on course, and should make landing in a couple hours.”

“Where are we going to go? You said there would be a place,” Spike said.

Twilight grimaced. “I know a place they definitely won’t go.” She pulled out two maps. “Rarity, Redheart, go out towards the north and find some food to take with us. Spike and I will arc south. Meet here.”

She pointed to a certain spot on the map where all three different snaking areas that were visible met.

Rarity looked at Twilight. “You’re not saying-“

“It’s the only place I can think of. We have to go in, and we don’t know how much food is going to be in there. Let’s move, we don’t have much time,” Twilight commanded, looking pointedly at the approaching ships.

Nodding, they separated. As they walked and collected food, she noticed that the map was expanding to meet the size of the island properly. It was larger than it looked, she was surprised to note. But there was no time to speculate as Spike put a pile of heavy, swollen apples into her saddlebags. “No more room in there. Let’s go,” he said. Twilight nodded.

The mare and the dragon cut through the forest, and Twilight dreaded coming out into that clearing, fearing what she would find. Would it be there, rotting? Could it have come back to life somehow? Coult it –

None of the above, she thought. Entering the clearing with the large boulder, she found a huge skeleton greeting her, scraps of meat hanging off its bones. It had likely been picked clean by scavengers. The hammer with which she had killed it was still buried in the beast.

Twilight looked away from it and attempted to ignore it as she found her way to the boulder. Rarity and Redheart were waiting at the mouth of the boulder, trying their best not to look at the giant corpse.

Twilight concentrated a moment and her horn gave off a low glow, revealing a slope leading downward. She looked at her companions, and nodded.

“Let’s go. Rarity, you’re in back.” The white unicorn nodded and used her own light. The group slowly descended into the cave, glancing around at the strangely smooth walls.

Twilight had a feeling that they were walking straight into the gullet of a very, very dangerous place. But there was no choice. They descended lower and lower, and finally the cave evened out into a flat area. But, not only it was flat… it was very nearly an unbroken plane.

Looking closely at the ground beneath her hooves, Twilight’s eyes widened. They were no longer walking on plain rock… this area looked like the rocks had been smoothed and tiled in order to look like a nice walkway. It was a room, in fact. It widened out to the sides so far that her light didn’t reach far enough to touch the walls.

“Twilight,” Spike said, catching her attention. She looked up. Spike was pointing at a torch along the wall. Twilight nodded, giving the dragon permission to light it.

Upon receiving his flame, the torch lit up predictably… but what was not expected, however, was the flame going along the wall, lighting every torch it came in contact with. The four watched in surprise as the entire room lit up.

Suddenly, a crash sounded behind them. They turned, and to their horror, found that a large, circular rock had fallen into place, closing off the way they came. Rarity ran to it and started pounding on it.

“No, no, no! I refuse to be stuck in here like some sort of Daring Do clone!”

“T-Twilight?” Hearing her name, she turned to look at Redheart. The earth pony was staring in the opposite direction, the way they had been heading.

“Wha-“ She began, looking in the same direction. What cut her off was the thing she saw. Rather, WHO she saw.

There, floating, inside what seemed to be a translucent cube made of magic, was a familiar dark-blue hued pony.

“Princess Luna?” Twilight gasped.

Magic and Revelations

Twilight inspected the barrier around the princess. As far as she could tell, there was no external way to disable… whatever it was. The princess seemed to be in stasis. Not even her mane, normally floating indiscriminately, was moving at all.

Twilight grunted in frustration, and hit the cube with a hoof. It gave off a light *ping*, but was unchanged other than that.

“What could she be doing here?” Rarity asked, peering at Luna. “Why is she here? And how?”

Twilight shook her head. “I have no clue. The… hay, I’ll just call it Stasis Cube, seems to have no way to be disabled.”

“Should we disable it?” asked Redheart, concerned. “Perhaps she was hurt, and it’s keeping her alive.”

Twilight’s horn glowed as she attempted to probe the inside of the cube. However hard she tried, she was unable to get any sort of feeling from the strange thing. The cube seemed to block every effort to penetrate it.

“I don’t know,” Twilight responded to Redheart. “I just don’t know. I’m trying everything I can think of to get through.”

Spike inspected the cube as well. “Well,” he started, “I could attempt to send something as a message to her. It’s been a long time, but…”

Twilight considered it. “Okay,” she said. Twilight levitated an apple out of her saddlebags to the waiting Spike.

Concentrating, he bathed the fruit in his special green fire. The apple exploded into mist and floated towards the princess.

All four occupants of the room looked eagerly on to see if it would penetrate the cube. As the mist passed easily through its barrier, Twilight grinned. The apple was deposited right next to the princess, and began floating, unmoving.

“That gives me an idea,” Twilight stated. She walked over towards the cube, and concentrated. Levitating another apple out, she cast a spell on it. She moved the apple over the cube, and detonated the spell.

The apple disappeared into nothing, but the cube vibrated, little shockwaves going through it like it was water. She smiled.

This time, grabbing another apple, she cast the spell on only the apple’s stem. This way, the spell would fire upward from the apple, instead of all around.

“If you don’t mind me asking, dear, but what are you planning?”

Twilight looked at Rarity, who had spoken. “Well, shortly before the princesses disappeared, Celestia had me research anti-magic for some reason.”

“Anti-magic?”

Twilight nodded. “Anti-magic is… well, the lack of magic. It cancels it out. Like Harmony and Chaos, magic and anti-magic are opposites, and cannot exist in the same place.”

Rarity screwed up her face. “So… it cancels magic?”

Twilight frowned. “Sort of. It doesn’t cancel magic on its own… it just… does the exact opposite of magic whenever it encounters magic.”

“Darling, that sounds like cancelling magic to me. But you’re the knowledgeable one. I’ll leave this to you,” Rarity said, examining the walls. The walls of the room they were stuck in were filled with runes, pictures and strange lines. None of the four could make sense of them, but they were all hauntingly familiar for some reason.

Redheart laid a hoof on Twilight’s back from behind. “You sure this is safe?”

“Absolutely,” Twilight responded, nodding. “The spell… well, anti-spell will go off in the direction the stem of this apple is facing when I send the catalyst by it. That way, we can choose not to activate it in case it happens to be pointing at Luna.”

“And, pray tell, what happens if it goes off and hits the princess?”

Twilight suppressed a shudder. “Well, since unicorns, and, by extension, alicorns, are imbued with magic through out their whole body, there’s a strong chance that the princess could have a violent reaction to the anti-magic and be injured, or worse.”

Redheart only frowned at Twilight a moment. Seeing that the lavender unicorn was committed to the idea, she gave a reassuring smile to Twilight and trotted over by Rarity to inspect the walls with her.

Twilight levitated the apple over to Spike, who had been waiting the entire time.

“Alright, Spike, Send this through, and try your best to aim this outward, toward the cube, and not towards the princess.”

Spike gave Twilight a dirty look. “You know I can’t aim this, Twilight, and even if I could, it’s been such a long time since I've done it.”

With that, the purple dragon breathed his green fire on it. The apple became mist, and floated through the cube to Princess Luna. When it reappeared, the apple was floating, stem pointed straight at the wall of the cube and awy from the princess.

“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed, rearing up in excitement. Now that the spell was in the right plac, Twilight got out her last apple. She cast another bit of anti-magic on it, the catalyst for the spell, and prepared to send it to Spike.

“Dear, what I don’t get, is how you’re casting this anti-magic.”

Twilight started, turning around to see Rarity looking at her.

“The way I see it, we Unicorns are magic. That should mean that we’re unable to perform anti-magic.”

Twilight nodded. “Normally, this is true. But with a special method, I can manipulate it. See, there’s a fundamental rule of the universe that must always be followed – every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Every bit of magic we perform creates the exact same amount of anti-magic. But, since for some reason our world is filled with a huge amount of magic and a negligible amount of anti-magic, that anti bit fizzes out before it’s noticed.”

Rarity nodded, motioning for Twilight to continue. Twilight held the apple up for Rarity to see. “What I did with this apple is that I spelled the skin of the apple with the magic version of the catalyst of the spell I placed in the Stasis cube. However, I spelled it so that the energy from the magic is pushing at the skin… from the inside. That meant that the anti-magic formed was pushed into the core of the apple, away from the regular magic. The core of the apple is imbued with the anti-magic, and the skin is charged with regular magic, keeping the anti inside.”

“That’s… awful convoluted, Twilight. Even for you.”

Twilight chuckled. “That’s the part where you say ‘no offense.’ But I know what you mean. It took me forever to even grasp the concept, and even longer to explain it to Princess Celestia, who simply didn’t have time to investigate it. Basically, imagine the apple as that cube there. The shell is the magic, and the anti-magic is floating around inside, not touching the edges, like Princess Luna. When it’s in proximity of the anti-magic burst, I’ll send in a catalyst to undo the binding of the anti-magic catalyst so the anti-magic burst can activate safely. It’s extremely important to do things like this the long way. It’s much safer. I don’t want to risk Princess Luna getting a huge touch of anti-magic just as she’s free of that thing.”

Rarity nodded, but still looked slightly confused. “I’ll leave you to it, then.”

Twilight turned around and gave the apple to Spike. Like before, the apple was transported inside. It appeared next to the other two, trapped in some strange stasis.

“Now,” Twilight muttered to herself, “For the final part.”

Twilight took a fruit out of her dwindling supply – a banana, she noted. She cast the spell on it so the anti-magic catalyst would be released when it was transported inside the cube.

“Twilight,” she heard Rarity say. Suppressing a groan, she turned to the white mare. She smiled, encouraging the unicorn to speak her mind.

“How did Spike transport the first apple in, then? Wouldn’t his magic have touched the anti-magic and disabled both?”

Twilight smiled. “A good question. Actually, Spike’s teleporting ability with his fire isn’t magic – it’s Chaos.”

Rarity gasped. “Chaos? Like what Discord did?”

Twilight nodded. “Dragon magic isn’t magic – it’s Chaos ability. They have it on a much smaller scale than Discord, but they have it nonetheless. Their fire, their ability to fly on their insufficient wings, and their immunity to heat altogether – it’s all natural Chaos. So, because Spike’s transportation ability is Chaos, it’s unaffected by anti-magic.”

Rarity nodded. “Makes sense. Okay.”

Twilight levitated the banana over to Spike, who stared at it.

“You okay, buddy?”

He shook his head, apparently breaking out of a daze or something. “Yeah, I’m fine. Multiple times of this really tires me out.”

Twilight smiled, understanding. “You’ll get a nice rest as soon as we’re done here. You deserve it.”

Spike nodded and bathed the banana in his special fire. The fruit reappeared inside the cube, and for a moment, seemed content to sit inside and do nothing. A moment later, however, the banana exploded into a little puff of ash. At this, the apple next to it had its skin simply vaporize. The insides of the said apple turned black as night, and then seemed to implode. The remnants of it floated quickly over to the first apple Twilight had sent in, and wrapped around its stem.

That apple suddenly flashed white, and a beam of dark energy shot out from the stem. It struck the side of the cube, and it let out a piercing ring. All four of the occupants in the room put hooves(or hands, in Spike’s case) to their ears, trying to block the terrible noise. It went on for several moments, and then stopped as the stream of darkness from the apple ceased.

Tentatively, Twilight stepped forward to check the cube. To her dismay, nothing appeared changed, except for the remnants of three fruits inside. “Come ON! Why…”

She trailed off as she watched Spike approach it, staring at on spot. Twilight followed the dragon’s gaze, and her eyes widened as she saw what he was looking at.

A crack.

“Woohoo!” Twilight yelled, prancing around. A crack! She’d –

“Ope, better get to it before it repairs itself or something.”

Unsure, Twilight stared at the crack. She tossed her mane. “Whatever.”

She turned around and bucked the crack as hard as she possibly could. What greeted her was a glorious sound. She turned around to see the crack growing larger and larger.

“Uh, might want to step back, everypony.”

Rarity, Redheart, Twilight and Spike fell back behind a couple pillars as the cube continued to crack more. Finally, when the entire thing was spiderwebbed with the thin lines, it broke into countless pieces with an earsplitting ring. Wincing, Twilight moved forward, her companions close behind her. Princess Luna and the other objects that had been inside of the cube had fallen to the ground.

“Princess,” Twilight called. No answer. She trotted forward, and put her hoof on the princess and pushed.

“Princess Luna?”

Under Twilight’s prodding, the alicorn groaned. “Princess!” Twilight was almost shouting now.

Twilight’s companions crowded close, watching as the princess slowly came awake. They all watched excitedly as an eye fluttered open, and looked around.

“What… what is going on?”

“Princess!” Unable to help herself, Twilight threw herself on the alicorn, giving her a squeezing hug.

“Twilight Sparkle? What are you doing here?”

Realizing that she was hugging the princess instead of conversing, Twilight stood awkwardly as she and the others gave the alicorn room to stand.

“I was going to ask you the same thing, Princess.”

Luna looked around, taking in her surroundings. She looked at the single unblemished apple by her, and raised an eyebrow. “Tell me, how did you find me?”

Twilight looked away. “We honestly didn’t expect to, Princess. We’re… we’re actually running away from something.”

Luna was about to ask Twilight what she could possibly be running from, but saw the pained expression on the mare’s face.

Instead, she tried another topic. “How did you destroy the stasis chamber? My sister insisted that no magic could possibly be strong enough to destroy it.”

Twilight grinned at that. “Well, we really didn’t use much magic.”

“We?” Rarity asked, giving Twilight a look. “Dear, it was all you. I believe we talked about the modesty thing.”

Twilight gave Rarity a smile. “Well, what I did was I used magic and Spike’s transportation Chaos to smuggle some anti-magic into the cube, and shattered it from the inside.”

Luna considered this, staring at Twilight. “Anti-magic? That is what Celestia had you study before… that is the last thing she had you study, correct?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. I’m not sure why. I-“

Twilight was cut off by a loud banging at the other side of the room.

“The ERN must be trying to get in. I’ll see what I can do,” Rarity said, and sped off towards the circular rock that blocked their exit.

“ERN?” the princess asked.

Twilight looked uncomfortable. “Equestrian Royal Navy.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Since when does Equestria have an active Navy? Our coast barely stretches three or four miles.”

Twilight opened her mouth, and closed it, unsure how to respond. How to explain that everything the princess knew was gone? That a whole different world was out there?

“Princess… I’m not sure how to explain this well, but after you and Celestia disappeared, we tracked rising sea levels. About a year after you were gone, a great flood came and demolished everything. Everything was gone. All we had left were a few dozen areas that were high enough in elevation to become islands.”

“What you are saying cannot possibly be true.”

“Why is that, Princess?”

Luna shook her head, an extremely worried look in her eyes. “Because. The reason I was in that stasis area was to prevent that said event.”

C11 - Princess

“Twilight! I can’t stop them!”

At Rarity’s voice, Twilight turned and saw that the circular stone was beginning to glow with several cracks running through. She closed her eyes. “Rarity, everypony, come over here by the princess. Let them in.”

All of them complied while the rock continued to crack. Luna looked questioningly at Twilight. Twilight smiled weakly at her. “Things have… changed, in your absence, Princess.”

At that, the rock gave way, and a dozen ponies in armor filtered into the room, shouting at the group to stand down.

“And why, exactly should I stand down?” Princess Luna asked, smirking.

At those words, the soldiers all dropped their weapons. Words like ‘Princess’, ‘Luna’ and ‘Impossible’ were heard. All of them bowed. “Princess… we did not know you were here.”

The leader of their group spoke. “I am Lieutenant Quickwing, Princess. We were pursuing these criminals, as per orders.”

“Criminals?” Luna asked. She looked at Twilight. “Two of these ponies are national heroes, Lieutenant. I don’t see how they can be criminals.”

“Princess…” Twilight started. Luna glanced at her. “It’s true, unfortunately. We’ve broken Equestrian Law by deserting when they took our ship.”

“Seizing property? Deserting? That is not the Equestrian Way, Twilight Sparkle. You will have to explain yourself, once we have left this musty room. I doubt this situation is simple. Please, Lieutenant, have your men stand down, and let us leave this cavern for more spacious surroundings.”

At her request, all the soldiers left the room, taking their weapons with them. Luna followed them, with Twilight and her companions behind the princess. Twilight took the opportunity to think of what she was going to say. The truth, obviously, but whose version? Regardless, it was going to bombastic to Luna, who didn’t yet believe that the Flood had come.

The large group of ponies made their way to the surface, and fanned out in the clearing. Everypony avoided the corpse of the giant pony, except for Luna, who stared at it with a worried expression.

“Fan out. I want a perimeter,” Quickwing said. His soldiers complied, scattering around the clearing. He looked back at the princess.

“How did… who… how did this beast die? Celestia herself created it.”

“That is unknown, your highness. It was dead upon our arrival. The fugitives may know,” Quickwing responded, looking at Twilight.

Luna glanced at the lavender mare as well, curiosity and a bit of worry in her eyes. “Twilight Sparkle?”

The mare in question looked at her hooves, and then up to the worried face of the princess. “It was I who killed it, Princess. It attacked my companions and me upon entering this clearing a week or two ago, and I was forced to kill it to make it stop.”

Luna seemed to want to question it, but with the giant hammer placed firmly into the thing’s skull, its cause of death was fairly obvious. “Why were you here in Everfree, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight frowned. “Princess, this may have been Everfree before, but now it’s Torres Island. Unexplored. Somepony hired my crew and me to see if it could handle pony inhabitants.”

Twilight could tell that the princess wasn’t listening to her words anymore, so she stopped.

“Twilight Sparkle… you are not lying when you speak of a flood.”

“No, princess.”

The princess’ eyes took on a dark look, a haunted visage overtaking her. She lowered herself to the ground, shaking slightly. “Oh, dear,” she breathed, staring straight ahead.

“Princess, are you okay?” Twilight asked, extremely concerned. She nudged forward and lay next to the shaking alicorn.

“No, Twilight,” she told the mare, not bothering to look at her. “I am not okay. This… this is the worst news I could have thought to receive.”

Twilight frowned, her eyes showing a look of pity and sympathy. “Why is that, Princess?”

The deep-blue alicorn opted to look at the lavender unicorn as she spoke this time. “Twilight, the reason I was imprisoned in that magical box was to contain the rising waters.”

Twilight reeled with that thought, staring at the ground in front of her. The princesses knew that the flood was coming? And they’d tried to do something to stop it.

But they’d failed.

And that thought scared Twilight. Scared her very much.

“How did you know, Princess?” Twilight asked, trying to get the alicorn’s mind off the failure. Luna shook her head quietly. “Celestia found out. She would not share her source with me, only that he or she was trustworthy. So we sealed ourselves away to siphon off our magic. But it was not enough, apparently,” She said, sighing again. She looked at her surroundings. “I did not sanction this royal navy, and Celestia certainly did not either. What in the name of Harmony has happened to Equestria in our absence, Twilight?”

Twilight took the opportunity to relate all of what she knew had happened during Luna’s absence, leaving out bits she thought were not important enough to be in such a summation.

Following the unicorn’s little impromptu history lesson, Luna pursed her lips. “Cadance and your brother. By all rights, you are a princess, Twilight Sparkle, and yet they hate you for choosing your own life. I fear to think of what has happened with the flood to disrupt our flimsy balance of Chaos and Harmony. Though, I am surprised a little bit. I fully expected my nephew Blueblood to make a move for the throne.”

Twilight coughed, looking away. “He did, your highness. Violently. It didn’t end well.”

Luna narrowed her eyes at her sister’s pupil. “How, exactly, did it end?”

Twilight pursed her own lips in distaste, since that subject was one she had hoped to ease the princess into. Death was far more common than it once had been. “Nearly a hundred ponies died, princess, and dozens more were injured badly. Blueblood himself lost his horn, an eye and a hoof fighting the admiral. Many still haven’t recovered, and the prince himself is secluded on a very small island to the south of Canter Island. It was only two years ago.”

Luna closed her eyes, taking in the news. After a short while she opened them, and she took on a look that seemed impossibly old. “So much violence in the wake of this flood. And still it does not equal mine own. This, I am glad for.”

After that ominous statement, Luna smiled down at the nervous unicorn. “Well then!” she announced, suddenly brightening. “Twilight Sparkle, we must join the navy’s ships in pursuing your own ship, in order to clean the stain off your otherwise impeccable image and allow you to live in peace.” Hearing this, Quickwing ordered his soldiers to gather, and waited for the other five beings to join them back towards their ship.

Lowering her head down to Twilight’s level, Luna smirked. “Now, Twilight, let’s be off. I have ponies to speak to,” she said.

“Yes, princess,” Twilight responded, trying out a nervous grin.

Luna shook her head. “You are now a princess as well, Twilight. You will call me Luna, or I will proceed to call YOU ‘Princess’ at every turn.”

“Yes p… okay, Luna,” Twilight stammered, even more nervous than before. Off to the side, Redheart chuckled at the lavender mare’s obvious discomfort and looked at Rarity.

“You owe me seven bits, Rarity,” the earth pony said, mirth in her eyes.

The unicorn scowled back at Redheart. “Sometimes I overrate you, Twilight,” she muttered, opening a saddlebag and drifting said bits into Redheart’s. “I would have thought you would have made the princess connection on your own years ago,” she grumped, and the group of five set off toward Quickwing's soldiers, avoiding the giant corpse of the beast.

C12 - Making Waves

Cheerilee

Cheerilee paced the upper deck of the Free Mare. Twilight had never left the ship solely in her charge while at sea. While she felt capable enough, she wasn’t sure of the others’ confidence in her. This was hardly the time to be wishy-washy, however. As soon as the little vessel the shore party was using was halfway to shore, the older mare began shouting orders.

“Alright, this is it! We’re getting out of here. Applejack, get us going to Windfall Island. Sweetie Belle, I need you to get started on reinforcing the ship’s hull. Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, are you ready?” she asked, turning to the two pegasi. They both nodded, fluttering their wings. “Good. I need you in the air the moment I ask. There’s no way of knowing how many of their ships are going to peel off towards us.”

Cheerilee turned to the rest of the crew. “Get us going as fast as we can, AJ. Fluttershy, you’re in the nest. Macintosh, Apple Bloom and Pinkie, you’re on our pair of cannons. I don’t want to use them, but we can’t risk being outnumbered. Granny,” she ordered, turning finally towards the pale green mare, “I’d like you to go below decks and make sure everything is secured.”

All the ponies in question immediately went to their duties, while Cheerilee went towards the back of the ship. She stared at the Equestrian ships, silently daring them to come after the Mare. She brushed her mane back with a hoof, nervous. She really hoped it wouldn’t come to a battle. Without their best fighter, it would be difficult to hold their own against professional soldiers.

Eyes constantly scanning the horizon, Cheerilee watched as three ships left the formation and began to track the Free Mare. She frowned, and gave a sad sigh. It was actually the best possible outcome – that only left a single ship for the shore party to deal with.

“Cheerilee?”

She turned and saw Macintosh standing behind her, giving her a soft stare. “What’s up?” she inquired of the large stallion.

“What load you want in them cannons?” He asked, clearly uncomfortable doing so. Cheerilee could understand why.

The Mare carried three types of ammunition – standard cannonballs for long-range attacks, which they rarely used, grapeshot in emergencies to tear into enemy combatants (which they had never used), and specially splintering cannonballs that tore into hulls and caused quite a bit of damage to enemy infrastructure. They’d never had to use that type of ammo, either. Cheerilee closed her eyes and gave a sad sigh.

“The regular cannonballs. We’re going to try to stop them from here if we can. If they get close…”

She shook her head, her mane fluttering in the wind. “Load the fragmentation balls.”

Macintosh looked at her, his eyes taking on a look of understanding pity, and walked away. Cheerilee watched him a moment, then cursed herself. She couldn’t have the crew pitying her for the situation. It would only make it harder for them to accept the difficult orders she’d have to throw at them.

Turning again, she watched the trio of ships approach. She reached over and grabbed a rail, leaned forward, attempting to gain a better look. Only one of the ships had forward cannons – she guessed that the Mare’s history of being nonviolent made them send their lesser ships. Normally, that would have been fine, but because of the onset of the upcoming war, they’d been pushed into a corner.

And the Free Mare was certainly not a good ship to push into a corner. As if on cue with her thoughts, from down below came two loud ‘clunks’. Looking to her left and right, she saw that the little platforms for their cannons had been extended. The latest addition to the ship was going to prove either a great one or a poor one, as she saw Apple Bloom and Pinkie on either side aim their cannons. It was quite the ingenious piece of Magitech – Twilight had spent hours and hours while at sea trying to figure out how to get it to work.

Finally, she’d been able to figure out a way to transfer the recoil from firing the cannons into a reloading mechanism. The little platforms would take the brunt of the recoil, but that in turn would give two bits of metal on a given side power, and it would send a cannonball of whatever type to the cannon that needed reloading. That way, the only reloading the cannoneers needed to do was to replace the black powder in the cannons.

The two mares on either side of the ship looked at Cheerilee, waiting for her signal. Again, she closed her eyes and let out a sigh. This would make their escape or break it. She reopened her eyes, putting a resolute look on her face and hardening her mouth into a thin line.

“Fire at will,” she said, staring behind the ship at the Equestrian vessels, which seemed to be unfortunately faster than their own.

Almost immediately, she heard two thumps from either side of the Mare. Two black specs shot from the ship towards the trio pursuing them. The first shots both plunked harmlessly in the water.

“Sploosh,” Pinkie said loudly from her side. Looking to the port side of the ship, Cheerilee frowned at the serious-looking pink mare who was waiting for the next cannonball to reach her cannon. Ignoring Cheerilee, Pinkie aimed her next shot immediately after receiving the reload, and fired without hesitation.

Cheerilee tracked the little black ball with her eyes, and was astonished to see it hit the leading vessel head on, causing the wood to splinter inward and putting a noticeable lurch in the ship’s course.

“Ka-boom!” Pinkie sounded off, pumping a hoof into the air. A second later, a thump was heard from the starboard side as Apple Bloom sent another ball of death towards the ships trailing them. It thunked into the water, but closer to the ships than her last time.

However, after the first hit, Cheerilee saw the ship on her left’s bow open up and a cannon roll into view.

“Keep your heads down! Sweetie, put an extra jolt of energy in the stern!” Cheerilee yelled down. She hoped the young unicorn heard her.

Not a moment after she yelled, she watched a cannonball fly from that ship right towards her. She rolled to the side, hearing the whizz as it passed right where she had been.

“Sweet Celestia,” she said, getting back on her hooves. The pounding of the two cannons on their ship was becoming like a second heartbeat to her. The projectiles fired from the Free Mare were hitting the Equestrian ships more and more as Pinkie and Apple Bloom became more accurate. Cheerilee watched as the lead ship fired another shot at them, this time impacting the stern head on. A jolt ran through the ship, but the structure was undamaged.

That was certainly enough of a warning for Cheerilee. “Scoot, Dash, go! Get that cannon out of commission,” she yelled. At her words, two pegasi took off at high speed from behind her and streaked towards the ship that was shooting at them. “Temporary ceasefire, cannoneers!” She ordered, and was satisfied to hear a halt in the cannon fire from her ponies.

She watched from afar as the two pegasi worked to gum up the enemy’s cannon. She narrowed her eyes as she watched Scootaloo savagely beat back a pegasus that was trying to interfere, worried about the young mare. It was over in a moment, however, as the two of them quickly retreated back to the Free Mare.

In the distance, Torres Island was still visible. Cheerilee glanced at it, worried again about the shore party, but shook her head. “Resume firing!” She hollered. The two ponies firing from the platforms resumed their duties. A soft pitter-patter of hooves on wood behind her caused Cheerilee to turn around. A concerned-looking Sweetie Belle gave Cheerilee a tight-lipped smile in greeting, and stopped next to the older mare. Cheerilee ran a glance over the unicorn – she had certainly grown from the young filly Cheerilee had once known. The once-brash mare searching for her cutie-mark had matured into a more humble and demure pony. Her curled mane was longer and strangely reminiscent of her sister’s, and her flank was adorned with a single sharply-squiggling line, but Cheerilee still saw the little filly inside her.

“Ship’s all reinforced, Miss C,” Sweetie told her.

Cheerilee stared Sweetie Belle in the eyes. “Get prepared for a fight, Sweetie. You-“

She was interrupted by the sound of Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash landing near them. “Mission accomplished,” Dash said, nodding. “Should we prepare for close combat?”

Cheerilee nodded. “All three of you, yes. You’re going to be our best fighters here, so make yourselves count. We-“

Again, Cheerilee was cut off by hooves landing near her. However, this time, it appeared Fluttershy was the one interrupting.

“I apologize Cheerilee, but you may wish to look forward, and to the starboard,” the butter-colored mare told her. Cheerilee frowned, then looked in the said direction. What she saw shocked her – another ship was bearing down upon them.

“This is not our day…” she grumbled, running to the bow to get a slightly closer look. Staring ahead, she saw that the ship’s sails lacked any kind of markings, and the hull was adorned on one side with a blotch of red. “Or maybe it is,” she said, eyes widening. “Rainbow Dash, I need you to get over there and ask for help.”

“Uh, Cheers, I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” she responded, pointing at an approaching pegasus.

“Derpy!” Cheerilee exclaimed as a familiar blonde-maned pegasus landed on their ship. She took a moment to shake herself out, then looked around.

“Where’s Twilight?” she asked, confused.

Cheerilee shook her head, walking to the mare. “Away. I’m in charge right now.”

Derpy looked at Cheerilee and gave her a big smile.

“Cap’n thought you could use some help,” she said, fluttering her wings.

Cheerilee smiled wide and nodded. “Oh, yes we could. Tell the captain of the Thorn we’re glad to get any help we can.”

With that, the gray pegasus took off towards her ship. Cheerilee watched as the pegasus landed at the bow and paused next to a speck, becoming one herself in the distance. All at once, the ship lurched, changing its angle to try and keep up with the four ships. The ponies on the Free Mare watched as four side hatches opened up on the Thorn and the same number of cannons rolled into view. Puffs of smoke were seen as the cannonballs fired from the ship streaked towards the Equestrian ships.

All four balls impacted, stating right then and there the skill of the ponies on board the new vessel. The ship they hit immediately slowed down as it began taking quite a bit of water. After just a moment, a shot rang out as a projectile left the Free Mare. Their shot went straight at the damaged ship and tore their mast clean in half.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo watched in awe as the severely damaged ship lagged behind and began to turn back towards the island in an attempt to get to safety. Cheerilee could almost hear Rainbow Dash’s smirk.

“That, my little fillies,” the rainbow-maned pony began, “is the power of a broadside.” She looked at Cheerilee. “You gotta convince Twi to get us more cannons, Cheers.”

Cheerilee just shook her head, amused. She walked back to the bow and saw that the ship on their port-most side was still trying to un-gum its cannon. A second burst of shots rang out, and the middle ship was pelted with two cannonballs. The Free Mare continued firing, ripping into the sails of the same ship. Eventually, it began to slow drastically as it failed to capture the wind. It too peeled off towards the island.

The final ship, finding itself outnumbered against the rogue ships, turned tail and ran as well. Cheerilee hoped that Twilight’s group had been able to hide someplace, because Torres Island was about to get real crowded, real fast.

After just a short while, their savior ship pulled up alongside them. Distinct ponies were roaming about the surface of the ship, staring as the Free Mare’s cannon platforms retreated inside the ship and closed off. “Sweetie,” Cheerilee began, not looking at the unicorn. She was pleased to notice the unicorn already passing ahead of her, placing a long plank between the ships. Cheerilee hopped onto the plank and boarded the Thorn.

Derpy gave her a smile as she hopped off onto the other ship. “Where is she?” Cheerilee asked.

“Right here,” a mare’s voice sounded out. Cheerilee looked up to see a tall earth pony with piercing light-green eyes staring at her. Her entire bearing spoke volumes in confidence and skill, and the rose behind her ear didn’t demean her look at all. “Where’s Twilight?” She asked.

Cheerilee sighed. “Well, we’ve gotten ourselves in quite a pickle, Roseluck.”

The other mare frowned. “How so?”

Cheerilee closed her eyes. They were in even more trouble now – they’d willingly accepted help from pirates during a fight with official Equestrian vessels. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

C13 - Catching Up

Twilight tried to keep the scowl off her face as she watched the three ships limp into the bay. One of the ships had so many holes in it that some pegasi were actively repairing it, bringing extra wood from the undamaged ship to fix it. She didn’t need to actually look at the lieutenant to know that Quickwing was scowling at her.

“I told them to bloody your nose, Lieutenant, not break your legs. There’s something else ahoof here. “

It was obvious the pegasus wanted to say certain things, but the princess’ presence denied him that ability. Luna looked down at Twilight, who was still watching the ships come in.

“Twilight, could your ship have done this?” She asked the lavender unicorn.

“Theoretically, yes, but I specifically told my crew not to do something like this. Something must have changed,” Twilight mused, watching as a pair of pegasi flew towards them. Their flights were rocked by uncertainty when they perceived princess Luna, but landed in front of Quickwing.

“Sir,” one of them began, “we pursued the convicts’ ship, as per orders. Not too long later, we were engaged at long range by them. We continued our pursuit even after they disabled our forward cannon. However, as we gained on them, a pirate ship, which we believe was the Thorn, approached and broadsided us. Everything went downhill from there. We believe that the pair of ships left to go to Windfall Island.”

Quickwing glanced at Twilight, who nodded. “I had nothing to do with Roseluck showing up, but I told Cheerilee to head to Windfall and come back when the pressure was off.” It felt strange to Twilight to be talking to military peacefully, relaying all her plans willingly.

“Then we’d best be off,” Luna began, “so your friends are not apprehended.”

The Lieutenant shot a glare at the alicorn that went unnoticed by everypony but Twilight. She could tell that the pegasus was still angry at having to work with them. The soldiers started forward, leaving Twilight, Luna, Rarity, Redheart and Spike to follow them towards a small collection of boats.

The secondary group all entered one small vessel with Quickwing and one other guard. They quickly made their way to the soldiers’ vessel, and were brought aboard. Once they were secured on deck, the ship began to turn out of the natural harbor Torres Island had.

“Let me make this clear, please. This is my ship, and I don’t want anypony making any trouble,” the lieutenant barked to all the ponies on deck. The soldiers nodded, and Twilight set her face into a frown.

“Yes, captain. Where should we stay on our way to Windfall?”

The pegasus thought a moment. Twilight took the opportunity to get a glance toward the alicorn next to her. Luna was giving her a strange look and looked like she wanted to say something, but was holding her tongue. Twilight turned back to Quickwing as the soldier made his decision.

“There’s a storeroom down below that is spacious enough for you, the princess and your companions to stay comfortable. I’ll have my crew clear it for you, and bring some bedding down. Please, I invite you to stay near the stern during your stay.”

Twilight found it easy to comply, and headed the way the captain had indicated. Upon reaching the edge of the ship, the group stared at the island behind her. The unicorn spared a glance towards Luna, who looked like she was gathering herself up to ask something.

“Twilight, you referred to the lieutenant as captain. Why is that?”

“Well, because of the majority of the world being shrouded by seawater, ships became our main method of travel. However, because of the nature of the beast, it takes days, usually around a week, to get to and from islands. And on a small piece of floating wood on an unforgiving ocean, you need absolute control. So, the highest ranking soldier, or the owner of a ship is called “captain” and given absolute control. You listen to the captain. You comply with the captain’s wishes, and you damn well make sure you do what the captain says.” Twilight realized that she had cussed in front of Luna. “Pardon me for my language.”

The alicorn waved a hoof, dismissing the matter of the verbiage. “Regardless of position outside of the ship, they are the Captain?”

“Correct.”

They were silent a moment, and a soldier trotted over to them. “Excuse me, but your room is ready. If I may show you down?”

Exchanging a glance with Twilight, Luna nodded, and the group followed the pony down into the ship. They passed several ponies that seemed to be just lounging about, and came to a large room under the stern. It had been cleared of all supplies.

“Apologies, but this is a soldiering vessel with little in the way of amenities. Hammocks will be brought down shortly,” the soldier said, and cantered off.

The party looked around, and at each other. Finally, Rarity spoke up. “If you don’t mind me asking, Princess…”

“Please,” the midnight alicorn responded, “Just Luna is fine.”

Rarity gave a polite smile, and continued. “If you don’t mind me asking, Luna… what in the world happened?”

Twilight admittedly wanted to hear more. “P- Luna, I’d like to know as well. Where is Celestia? What’s going on?”

“As I said before, Twilight, I know next to nothing. Only that a grave threat was incoming, and we had to seal ourselves into siphons in order to bring to bear the magic to keep it at bay. And we failed.” The princess’ expression fell, and she slumped to the ground. Twilight trotted over and laid a hoof over the lunar princess’ back without a thought. The alicorn smiled at Twilight.

“If that didn’t stop it, then there’s nothing you could have done. If there’s one thing that this new life has taught me, it’s that you should never live in the past. Move forward, and make a better life for yourself. Now, we need a plan.”

A pair of soldiers burst into the room, levitating some hammocks and mattresses behind them. They unceremoniously dumped them into the corner of the storeroom and left, leaving a bewildered group in their wake.

“I wonder what’s got their goose,” Rarity mused.

Spike got a harsh laugh. “I think we can make a decent guess by checking out their other ships. I can’t imagine they’d be anything less than cold towards us.”

Rarity gave the dragon a pointed look, but concentrated on beginning to set up their sleeping arrangements. Redheart joined her, while Spike walked toward the other two mares.

“And what sort of plan did you have in mind, Twilight?”

“Well,” she began, smiling momentarily at her onetime assistant, “the first order of business should be to get to Windfall and link up with the others. We need to group together and fix this stupid mess that I’ve gotten us into. Then we can all head to Canter Island, meet with my brother and Cadance, and we can work on a plan.”

Luna pondered a moment. “This conflict with these ‘Severed Isles’. Might we not want to resolve this as soon as possible?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, but the problem is knowledge. I’ve never been to the inner circle, the biggest cluster. The only ‘Severed’ islands we’ve visited are some of the fringe ones, and not very often. It seems like they want to isolate themselves.”

“Where geographically is their territory?”

Twilight thought a moment, then rummaged through her saddlebags, setting them on the ground. She pulled out a tube, and popped a cap off the top. She looked through some of the papers that had been inside, then pulled one over to the alicorn. “This,” she said, pointing a hoof near the southwestern edge of the map, “is Canter Island.” Twilight moved her hoof north, passing over half a dozen islands. “This is Horn Island. It’s the northernmost Island on a map not based on the Severed Isles’ territory. We don’t really know what’s up there. I mean, it took nearly three years to branch out and connect our homes that we knew about. There could be just one or two more islands not on this map, there could be dozens.”

“But it’s north. What’s the scale?”

Twilight pointed at an island near Canter. “This is New Manehattan. It’s approximately… eighty seven leagues, or five days’ travel.” She did a quick calculation in her head, remembering that ponykind had only switched to leagues as measuring nautical distances several years after the flood. “Around 300 miles... ish.”

Luna looked at the map and concentrated, attempting to remember where things had been prior to the flood.

“So it’s about 1500 miles from Canter Island to Horn, around a month’s journey. It means nothing to me at the moment, but it feels like this should trigger some sort of reaction. It’s so far, nearly out of Equestrian borders… how were so many ponies… wait.” The alicorn looked at Twilight and narrowed her eyes. “How did you know the flood was coming?”

Twilight realized that the princess had a lot of unanswered questions, most likely not even occurring to her. “We did some searching for you and Celestia. It became apparent after a while that there were winds of something ominous to the south, heading north quickly. After quite a bit of investigation, it was found that the water level in the Astral Sea was rising extremely quickly. Many ponies fled as far as they could to the north, and prepared there. When the flood came, there was already a large population there.”

“Why did you yourself not go north?”

Twilight looked over her shoulder at Rarity and Redheart, and put a hoof around Spike, who gave her a frown. “Couldn’t leave my friends, and I didn’t want to leave the area in case you or princess Celestia came back.”

Luna nodded as she considered her sister’s former pupil’s words.

“So! We know next to nothing about this foe, and yet we propose to make a fight of it.”

“It’s the feel I got from my brother. He wouldn’t be this far north if there wasn’t a huge amount of trouble brewing.”

“It’s clear to me that we need to head this off as soon as possible, Twilight. Let me see this map.”

Twilight grabbed the map wither her magic and levitated it over to the alicorn. The blue-hued mare stooped herself over the map and traced a hoof across it, muttering to herself. Realizing that the conversation had come to a halt, Twilight trotted over next to Rarity and Redheart, Spike in tow.

“So,” She sighed.

“So, indeed,” Rarity responded.

“Are we considered captured, or guests? Because either way, I think our reputation is completely ruined, Twilight,” Spike said, sarcasm thick in his voice.

“Well, cap, I guess for once we can stay on a ship without working. I guess that’s something,” Redheart put in.

“Yep. We don’t have to do a thing. We just sit around, doing nothing. That’d be great, if it weren’t a several-day trip to Windfall.”

Rarity looked pensive a moment. “Honestly, I think we might be the lucky ones. I worry about the others.”

Twilight nodded, a frown on her face. “I didn’t count on Roseluck being in the area. This could help us… or ruin everything. Time will tell, no?”

“Twilight, I believe you said it was around a five-day trip from Canter to New Manehattan,” Luna began. “What in the world do you do on such a ship to entertain yourselves?” The mare had obviously had the thought occur to her while she was calculating distances on the map.

Rarity looked at the questioning alicorn, and gave Twilight a pointed look. “I rescind my statement about us being the lucky ones.”

Twilight grumbled, and approached Luna to give her the bad news – there really wasn’t all that much to do for the three or four days they’d be at sea.

Author's Note

FINALLY. OH MY GOD FINALLY.

I have been trying so hard to put this out. It just wouldn't GO. Friggin' eh! It's been nearly three months, and I apologize profusely. If some of you drop the story instead of rereading previous chapters to re-familiarize yourselves, I hold no blame upon you. I hate authors that do what I have done. Hopefully I'll be putting out updates on a more regular basis now.

C14 - Number Two

Cheerilee

Cheerilee stood at the front of the Free Mare, glancing left and right occasionally to check the horizon. That, and to brood over the fact that the Thorn was alongside them. Though she was grateful for the assistance, it didn’t help the fact that Twilight’s plan had been ruined. As it was, it was unlikely that they would have been pursued. Now, however, it was almost a certainty. Windfall wouldn’t be much of a refuge if they would be hounded by the Equestrians at every turn.

Cheerilee’s ears perked as she heard the ‘clip-clop’ of hooves behind her. She stood silent and didn’t look at the pony that had approached, waiting for whoever it was to speak his or her mind.

“Windfall might not be the best choice anymore.” Surprisingly, this was coming from Rainbow Dash. Cheerilee glanced back at the rainbow-maned pegasus, mildly surprised at the mare’s mild manner. “What, surprised I can think ahead?”

“Honestly, Rainbow?” Cheerilee started. “Yes.”

Rainbow chuckled. “I’m sort of surprised too, but conversation’s all dried up and awkward so I started to think for a bit. Trying to keep my mind off the shore party.”

Cheerilee nodded. “You’re right – Windfall probably isn’t the best choice for us right now. Hay, a Severed-held Island might be better.”

The pegasus gave a goofy grin at that. “We’re assuming that just because it’s closer to Equestria that it’s held by the navy.”

Cheerilee chuckled. “You’re right there, but what can we do? The nearest Island other than Windfall or Torres is Fog… and well…”

“You’re right,” Rainbow responded with her scratchy voice. “We don’t have a lot of options. I guess… to Windfall we go?”

Cheerilee gave the pegasus a goofy grin. “To Windfall we go.”

Twilight Sparkle

“Check.”

Twilight looked at the board, and had to agree with the assessment, seeing the Bishop’s direct line of attack on her King.

She made the obvious move of putting the pawn in the way of the attack, effectively blocking Luna’s entire offense until she could bring other pieces to bear.

The two mares stared at the small black-and-white checkered board, figuring out their moves. Elsewhere in the cabin, Rarity was mending some of the soldiers’ uniforms, and Spike was playing word games with Redheart.

Luna moved a knight forward in order to put some pressure on Twilight’s rook – which she immediately rectified, having seen the move several turns ago. Luna frowned at how quickly the unicorn had responded.

“Must you be so obvious, Twilight?”

Twilight, who was barely paying attention to the game at all, was pulled out of her reverie. “I’m sorry?”

“I realize that you have become quite good at this game from spending so long at sea, but do you have to rub it in my face?” Luna asked with a half-grin. Twilight blushed and looked down.

“Sorry. My mind’s just occupied is all.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going into one of your funks again, Twilight,” Spike said from across the room, concerned.

At this the mare smiled. “Don’t worry, Spike. I’m just planning our next move. I’m debating whether we should stay at Canter, or go looking for Celestia.”

“Whatever you choose is fine with us, dear,” Rarity responded half-heartedly, still focused on her repairing.

Luna raised an eyebrow at the comment, which Twilight noticed. “Something wrong, pr- Luna?”

“It just amazes me that your friends would follow you with such trust.”

“She’s our captain, Princess,” Redheart spoke out. The other two nodded.

“I mean, she’s still our friend, but her being the Captain has become a part of our lives. We trust her to guide us well, and she trusts us to follow,” Rarity put in.

Twilight blushed again and hid her head modestly. “Honestly, it’s a question of ability and not ambition. Were there somepony with more ability, I’d totally let them be captain.” She smirked. “Rarity over there isn’t too shabby, which is why she’s my first mate.”

“What made you decide to bring her along, then, if she is your second? Shouldn’t she have left with the others in your party?”

Twilight shook her head. “No. First, because I needed her along in case things got really ugly; she’s often a better talker than I am.” The unicorn let out a shudder. “If you hadn’t been there, Luna…” she trailed off, thinking again.

“So you left this mare Cheerilee in charge? Are you sure she is up to the task? I have not before heard of her.”

“She was a schoolteacher in Ponyville before the flood, your highness,” Rarity offered. “She taught both my and Applejack’s sister, and has displayed a good head for leadership in the past.”

Luna pondered Rarity’s words, before nodding. She moved a pawn forward to threaten Twilight’s forward-most pawn, a move that Twilight frowned at.

“Why did you-“

The alicorn cut her off with a hoof. “You know I’m not going to answer that question. That’d be telling.”

Twilight gave the royal a glare that couldn’t possibly be misinterpreted. It clearly conveyed a “I hate you for this” in all caps.

Before the conversation could be continued, there came sudden movement from above. The room’s occupants looked upward, noting the sudden increase of movement on the deck.

The door to their little room opened with a bang. A soldier burst into the room. “Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna; Please come up to the deck!”

The two mentioned mares quickly assumed standing positions, sparing a small glance. They followed the soldiers out, leaving behind their three companions to wonder.

The short walk up to the deck was tense, with almost no soldiers belowdecks. The wooden planks of the ship thunked dully as the ponies rushed to the deck, wondering what the problem could be. Their curiosity was soon sated as the open sea came into view, ruined only by a single burning ship on the horizon.

“They’re flying no colors,” Quickwing notified them from behind. “We’re moving to intercept them and hopefully nab some survivors. There seem to be no other ships around, but that might change as we move forward. I ask that you both be present for this, so there are no surprises.”

A shocked Luna only nodded, staring at the alighted vessel, while Twilight deigned to respond with “Aye, Captain. Do you want help?”

Quickwing shook his head. “No, we’ll be just fine here. We’ll intercept in just a few moments now.”

Twilight took her place by Luna, both staring down the ship. “It worries me that you are not shocked by this occurrence, Twilight.”

Twilight shook her head. “I’ve seen it before. It’s a horrible choice – die in the flames, or attempt to jump into the saltwater with a chance of a worse, drowning death. Salt water gets awfully tempting after a couple days without water.”

Luna looked down at the smaller pony. “It is a harsh place you live in, Twilight Sparkle.”

The lavender unicorn gave a half smile at that. “It’s a harsh place WE live in, Luna. We can only accept this and move on. Here, we’re almost upon the ship.”

As the soldiers’ vessel came up to the ship on fire, it became clear that it was a pirate vessel. There were no screams of terror, no ponies attempting to put the fire out.

“Could somepony have gutted the ship?” Luna asked as some of the soldiers made their way over to quell the flames.

“They could all have been taken prisoner,” Twilight remarked as she watched the other ponies work quickly. Within only a few moments, the flames had died down to embers. “It’s not uncommon to occur among pirate vessels. Nopony looks kindly on those who raid others’ livelihoods.”

“It seems quite overdone, though, to set the ship aflame and let it go.”

Twilight tossed her mane. “Honestly, it’s a bit showy for the open ocean, you’re right. Must be special. Hold on, I’m going to take a closer look.” With a pop, the unicorn disappeared. Luna was unable to even get a word off before the teleport was complete, and Twilight reappeared on the other ship.

The unicorn and sometimes-pirate searched the ship’s deck for any signs of attackers, ignoring the soldiers around her, who in turn ignored her, assuming she had permission. The ship was completely clean, not a single mark denoting a struggle. The fire damage was extensive, causing much of the evidence to be lost. She quickly made her way to the captain’s cabin, which was locked. A quick grin flashed across her face as she smashed the lock with a ball of telekinetic power.

The room was a mess. There were papers all over, and gold coins littered the floor. Twilight, succumbing to years of training, teleported many of the coins to her saddlebags located inside the soldiers’ ship. Meanwhile, she checked out the walls of the cabin, which had remained mostly unharmed by the flames. Signs of a scuffle were apparent throughout, most of them either indents of hooves or claw marks.

She approached a wall and looked closely at the wall marks, “feeling” them with her magic. Satisfied with her findings, she turned around to be met by a lieutenant Quickwing standing in the doorway.

“Twilight Sparkle, what are you doing on this ship?”

“Investigating.”

“Might I remind you, Miss Sparkle, that you are a fugitive at the moment and you are only free of shackles because of the Princess of the Night’s presence? Who, might I add, is quite distraught at your sudden disappearance?”

“I’m well aware. However, are you aware that this ship was attacked by Griffons?”

The soldier frowned, trotting forward to meet the unicorn. “Griffons?”

“These talon marks,” Twilight started, pointing a hoof at the gouges, “are the work of griffons. What I can’t figure out is why. The cabin is filled with trade route information on ponies only. If it was an official Griffon ship, why didn’t they take the info or the money?” Twilight had left enough of the coins on the ground to make it appear as if they had been undisturbed.

“This is troubling, but neither of us are in position to make any sort of judgment about this. Please return to the ship, and I will tell you what I can when we are done.” The pegasus trotted out of the room, expecting complete compliance. Twilight stuck her tongue out at the captain as she teleported several more coins into her bags. Satisfied with her petty revenge, she returned to her spot next to the lunar alicorn, who was relieved to see her safe.

“Twilight, please notify me if you plan on doing something like that. You scared me half to death.”

“Sorry, Pr- Luna. If I had waited, I likely wouldn’t have found what I wanted.”

“And what did you find?”

Twilight scrunched up her face. “I’m not really sure. I’ll see what Quickwing finds first.”

Several moments passed as the two mares watched the other ponies go about their business. Eventually, the pegasus lieutenant came abovedecks and flew over to them, a strange look on his face. “You’re not going to believe what we found.”

“I’m pretty sure whatever it is, Captain, we can handle it,” Twilight responded, indignant.

“You’re going to have to come with me to the ship’s cargo hold.”

The lieutenant flew back to the other ship without another word, and the two mares followed, Twilight through teleportation and Luna through her own power of flight. The path to the cargo hold led them down into the ship, bypassing several burned-out sections. Twilight marveled at how it was still afloat. Eventually, they came upon the hold. They bypassed the normal areas and Quickwing revealed a sliding bottom, often used by pirates and smugglers. The three ponies ducked into the dark, damp area, lit up by a single lantern held aloft by a soldier.

In the corner of the smuggler’s hold was a large rectangular prism, transparent all the way through.

“Okay,” Twilight started, “If I go through any more shocks this week I’m going to have to blow something up very violently.”

Luna just narrowed her eyes and hissed, “Discord.”

Author's Note

I leave you on another cliffhanger for my triumphant return! After seven months of waiting, The Open Sea gets a chapter! Yes, I am coming back, and I already have the next chapter in production, popping in sometime next week after I give Prepare for Ponies an update.

In other news, I am attending BronyCon this year with my friend Big-Boss (of facebook's The Brony Archives), OtakuBrony(Cool Story Bro, but it needs more Ponies), Kai (Ponies, Ponies everywhere), the admin of Equestrian Mental Institution, and another friend of mine whom I've known for several years.

Please, contain your orgasms.

I will also not be offended if you fail to give a shit.

C15 - Shore Party

Twilight Sparkle

“Why is DISCORD on this ship? And why is he trapped in that same box that you were in?”

“I do not know, Twilight.”

“Feathers,” Quickwing said. “I’d hoped you’d know. There’s no precedent for this kind of thing.”

“I wonder what happened,” Twilight started. “Maybe the griffons attacked and found Discord down here, and then tried to sink the ship?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. I just know that this is a complete mess and I have no clue what to do,” Quickwing responded. The three ponies sat in deep thought for a moment, attempting to formulate plans. Twilight was the first to perk her head up.

“Maybe if we can get Discord transferred to your ship, captain, we can take him with us.”

The pegasus looked at her like she’d gone bonkers. “Are you insane? Why would I take this thing on my ship? If anything, I say the griffons were right! Burn this smuggler ship into the ocean and let him rot there until the end of time.”

“I’m not so sure, Lieu- Captain.” Luna interjected. “This magical prison acts like a siphon, draining the excess magic off of him.” Her horn glowed. “It’s going somewhere south, but it’s so far off I can’t get anything but a general direction.”

Twilight stared at the alicorn. “You’re saying we should follow the path?”

“Not right away, not without preparation, but I think this is worth investigating.”

Quickwing was torn. Twilight could tell that he wanted nothing more than to let the draconequus sink to the bottom of the ocean, but did not want to go against his princess. After a moment, he slammed a hoof into the wood. “Fine. We’ll see about transferring him. It’ll be difficult though. I’ll bring some unicorns down.”

The Pegasus left them alone momentarily with the draconequus. Twilight moved forward and probed the box with her magic. “This is different. Your ‘prison’ was laced with antimagic, but this seems to be chaotic. We should be able to manipulate it with simple telekinesis, but I’m afraid to try.”

Luna stepped forward. “I will, then.” Without a moment’s hesitation, she lifted the spirit’s prison off the ground anticlimactically.

“Well then,” Twilight stated, a bit surprised

“I would appreciate it if we moved quickly, Twilight. This is quite heavy.”

The lavender unicorn nodded, running up to see a surprised Quickwing. “Captain, Luna has the spirit and is carrying him up.”

“Fine. Let’s go,” he answered, turning around and ushering the group of unicorns he was escorting back towards the entrance. A short walk and they found themselves back on the deck of the soldiers’ ship, discord’s prison sitting on deck. The rest of the ponies were pointedly ignoring it.

“If it’s a problem, I will move him into the room where we are staying,” Luna suggested.

“That’d be a good idea,” the Lieutenant responded. “Alright you lazy ponies, let’s get our ship moving to Windfall!”

Cheerilee

“Land, ho!” Rainbow called from the crow’s nest. Cheerilee walked to the bow of the ship and pulled a spyglass to her. Indeed, Windfall Island was visible on the horizon, and was growing at a fast rate. The earth pony mare trotted above to the top deck and motioned for the rainbow-maned pegasus to fly down to her.

“What’s up, Cap?” Rainbow asked as she lowered herself to Cheerilee’s level.

“Fly over to the Thorn and find out what Rose intends to do.”

Rainbow Dash nodded and shot over to the other ship. Cheerilee watched as the pegasus hovered over Roseluck for a moment and then returned to the Free Mare.

“She says that she’ll probably take off now that Windfall is in view. Pirates aren't really welcome at all there.”

Cheerilee nodded. “I don’t blame her.” The mare walked to the side of the ship and waved at the expectant captain, who waved back. Shortly after, the Thorn began to float away from them, turned west.

“Captain!”

Cheerilee turned around to find Scootaloo and Big Macintosh looking at her. “Captain, Mac and I thought it might be a good idea to pick up some long-term supplies on Windfall. Who knows when we might be landing next?”

She regarded Scootaloo for a moment, struck by how much the filly had grown up. The horrible world forced upon them had necessitated much of the growth the pegasus had undergone, but even then, Scootaloo had matured into a responsible, down-to-earth mare who cared about those around her.

“That’s a good idea. Take Sweetie with you, she could talk her way out of a lynching if she had to.”

Scootaloo nodded and walked away, Macintosh following. Windfall was much closer now, and Cheerilee had to come up with a plan to keep busy over the next several days. Should she go with a shore party and take odd jobs on the island? Keep away from town and stay on the ship? There were so many variables, so many decisions, that Cheerilee didn’t even notice Rainbow Dash approach.

“Cap?”

“Hm? What do you need, Rainbow?” Cheerilee asked, only slightly paying attention.

“Where do we take her? Go to the city, or around to one of the coves?” Rainbow seemed insistent, more so than usual.

Cheerilee glanced at the growing island, and was perturbed to see a huge number of ships in the main harbor. It would be a jungle getting the Mare out of there with all of the ships clogging their exit.

“Take us to the hidden cove on the east side of the Island. We’ll be safe there.”

Rainbow nodded and went to relay the orders to Applejack.

Cheerilee decided then to go to the town with a small party, if only to find out what the commotion was. Because Sweetie, Mac, and Scootaloo would be purchasing supplies, Cheerilee would be limited on her choices. She needed a token force on the ship in case of attack, but couldn’t leave herself helpless on the island, either. She looked around the deck, noting each crewmember and considering their worth in various situations.

After a few moments’ deliberation, Cheerilee decided to take Rainbow and Apple Bloom with her on the Island. That way, she’d have a decent fighting force, while the ship was still moderately protected until the other party got back.

A while later, after they had dropped anchor and the supply party had left the ship, Cheerilee departed with Rainbow and Apple Bloom.

“While we’re here,” Cheerilee started, “don’t call me captain. We need to act like nothing’s wrong, and we’re still at full capacity.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Good idea. No one would try anything knowing Cap – er, Twilight was around.” They quickly brought their skiff to shore and exited, finding the path that led into the island.

“What’s our main objective here, Cheers?” Rainbow asked.

“We need to find out what’s wrong in the bay, and what the situation with the fighting is. It’d also be nice to line up a job for when this is all over.”

The other two mares nodded, and they walked in peace along the path. Before long, the path dumped them on a larger one that obviously was the main travelling route on the island, leading between one of the minor villages and Windfall itself. There was no activity along it, which should have set Cheerilee off immediately. The three of them moved inland until Rainbow Dash spotted something.

“Smoke!” She pointed a hoof and rose into the air.

“See what it is. We’ll wait here.”

The pegasus flew off towards the smoke, which was also the same direction as Windfall. A few short moments later, she landed next to the other mares. “Windfall’s under attack! Severed troops are everywhere!”

“Hold, strangers!”

All three privateers looked towards the new voice, and were shocked to see several soldiers advancing upon them.

“This island is now under Severed control. Surrender yourselves and explain your presence, and your stay in prison will be short if we are satisfied with your answer.

Cheerilee let herself have half of a smile. “Well, if you’re going to be so generous about it…” She readied herself and saw the other two do similarly out of reflex. “We can’t help but spit at such a laughable choice. What do Severed troops want with an independent island like Windfall? It’s too far from equestrian territory to be of consequence.”

The earth pony laughed. “This is not a war against Equestria. This is a war to unite all the islands, and become the World Republic. Windfall is simply resisting change.”

Cheerilee looked sideways at her companions. Apple Bloom mouthed the words “World Republic” like it left a sour taste in her mouth, and Rainbow Dash was withholding laughter.

“Um. Well, mister soldier, if you could get out of our way, we have some companions in town that we’d like to meet up with,” Cheerilee intoned, doing her best to convey disinterest.

“I’ll do no such thing. Soldiers, detain them!” The group charged them.

Cheerilee took advantage of the distance to measure their opponents. Leading the group was the earth pony that had spoken, a large stallion that looked to be all brawn and no agility. Behind him was a pair of pegasi that carried large staves, meant to injure and incapacitate, not kill. However, on either side of them were two more earth ponies that held swords in their mouths, which looked incredibly deadly.

Apple Bloom had been training to fight, and could handle herself. Rainbow Dash, too. If anything, Cheerilee was the worst fighter present. It was only natural that she divide things the easiest way. “Dash, fliers. Bloom, swords. I’ll take the leader.”

With those quick orders, the three ponies sprang into action. Cheerilee quickly blocked the other two as she advanced on the lead soldier. She heard sounds of scuffle as they began to circle each other.

“So, a Mare challenges a Stallion? Awful pretentious of you. I don’t see how you can win this.”

“You’re just a brute, Severed. I can take you, easy,” Cheerilee responded. The stallion gave off a war cry at the insult, and charged her. The interim captain quickly stepped aside, letting him pass harmlessly. “Is that all you've got?”

“Wragh!” He charged her again, but a little slower this time. Cheerilee sidestepped again, but shot out her foreleg in an attempt to clothesline the soldier. The stallion anticipated this and responded by rearing up short of her and bucking her in the side, causing her to go flying into a tree. The impact shook her, but years on the ocean had toughened her hide.

“Is that the best you have? Let me show you how it’s done.”

Cheerilee charged forward herself, but began to move erratically, as if she was dancing. The soldier was confused, and wasn’t able to respond as she suddenly shot forward and slammed her shoulder into his head. He staggered back, slightly dazed. Cheerilee rose up on to her hind legs and began to pummel the soldier with her forelegs.

“Your loss here, soldier, will be a result of rigid training.” She dodged a clumsy attack to her midsection and slammed a hoof into his head, sending him reeling. “You don’t know how to fight someone who has trained herself using her own methods.” With finality, she switched to her forelegs and slammed her hind legs into him, sending him into a tree as well. His head hit the trunk of a tree with finality, and he failed to rise again.

Panting, Cheerilee let herself look around, hoping her companions fared just as well. She was glad to see three of the attackers down, but the final soldier was standing his ground with a sword at the ready while Dash threatened him from above with a stolen stave, and Apple Bloom pressed her advantage. Cheerilee took advantage of the moment.

“Hey, severed dude!”

“Huh?” His sudden confusion at being addressed during battle left Apple Bloom an opening. The hoof-to-hoof fighter darted in and slammed a foreleg into his midsection, sending a nasty feeling through the soldier’s body. He collapsed to the ground, dropping his sword.

“Well, that was a nice little fight,” Rainbow said as she dropped to the ground, discarding the stave.

“Yes, but that time we were barely ahead in odds.”

Apple Bloom shook her head. “Ah, it was easy. What’s wrong, Cheerilee? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Cheerilee stared ahead, where the smoke was rising. “Scootaloo, Sweetie and Mac are in that mess.”

Sharing a horrified look, the three mares took off at a gallop towards the city.