A small boat sailed threw the sky, only two ponies sat in it as it moved threw the sky. The one steering was Braeburn, his companion Pumpkin was staring at the sky board.

"How the hell do you and Spike do this every month?" She demanded breaking the long silence.

"It only a 14 hour round trip, We'll be arriving at the Manehattan eastern Sky island in about 20 minutes so stop complaining and buck up, you drew the short straw and Spike isn't back from doing whatever the fuck He, Yona, and Scootaloo have been doing at the outpost for the last week so...Deal with it," Pumpkin groaned as she lay back in her seat, she had brought a book but had finished it an hour ago and wasn't about to re-read the novel so soon, Braeburn looked down at her and sighed. "Be good while where shopping and I'll buy you two new books so the return trip won't be as bad," Pumpkin grumbled and Braeburn added "We can also get Ice Cream," Pumpkin pepped right up at that.

"Guess I can skim the interesting parts again" She said as she grabbed her discarded book and flipped threw it. His Companion distracted Braeburn turned his attention to the floating islands that could just be seen in the distance, it was the closest thing to a civilized place left in the world, mostly due to the high number of Unicorns running the place. the fact that it was completely unapproachable from it's far eastern side may have helped to, Braeburn looked over the island to the massive wall of storming water less than a quarter mile from the east side of the city and smirked at it. It extended far into the distance in both directions but it wasn't endless, tho it was impassible. Even from his vantage point he could see the never ending storm that surrounded the water, waves twice the size of the Midnight Ride III, Electricity sparked threw the clouds and the water, Whirlpools swirled threw the water, countless twisters ran across the water, and if none of that killed you an invisible barrier hidden in the storm would burn any boat and it's crew to ash without the proper counter spell. He looked at the chaos before Pumpkin spoke up.

"You have something on your mind?" She asked, excitement in her voice, it didn't happen often, but if he was in the right mode Braeburn could tell a very entertaining story. Braeburn looked at her with a sparkle in his eye.

"I was just thinking of the time the Midnight Ride, the original one, was swallowed by the storm," Pumpkin let out a squeal of joy as she tossed her book to the floor of the boar.

"Oh I haven't heard that story since I was 12!" Braeburn smiled at her.

"Well, let old Braeburn spin you a yarn-"

I remember the first thing I thought when we got nice and close to that swirling wall of water, we are fucked. I was helping to pull in the sails of the foremast, which just goes to show how long ago this really was, had a much larger crew back then, Can't honestly say I remember most of if any of them, but I remember the old days being really dramatic what with us not knowing about the revive when we die part of our powers and such, we where real fear full. Vinyl wasn't the captain back then, it was some buff white Pegasus, lived in ponyville before the end, nice guy, shame he had to die but, well we all died that day. It wasn't his idea to go to the storm, was the first mate who talked him into it, don't remember the fuckers name, by choice mind you, guy was a dick and flexed his power at any and everyone he could.

"Hurry with the sails" he called out from the wheel, don't know why he was in such a hurry, pretty sure we all knew, ever threw all our hope, that we where going to fail. Spike and Limestone where very open about how confident they where that we were dead, hell the two where making a day out of it, they where sitting by the mast, talking about old times, families that where long broken, friends who where long dead, and Siblings they wished they could see one last time. Wanted to join 'em, I really did. But I was hoping, dreaming really, that I'd get to see my cousin, maybe a few of 'em, show up and prove that even a sea of death can't keep Apples apart. Not gonna lie, I'm not sure why, even after seeing that death storm with our own eyes, we went forward with the plan, I guess after 3 years of living in hell we just wanted to end it in style. Quite a fair number of ponies watched us sail into that storm, pretty sure that's when the legend of the Midnight Pirates really started, the only Crew in all the sky to sail into the storm and come back out.

We lost over half the crew before the entire boat had even fully entered the storm, Spike and Limestone where first, along with 2 other's who's name's have been lost to time, they where sucked off by a Twister, didn't even have time to fully notice they where gone when a wave hit us. Now a day's we think of death and pain and we just laugh our asses off at it, see you tomorrow and what not, but the first time...Sweet mother of the void the first time will haunt us all for however long we exist, I remember holding on for dear life, someone hands, think it was Red Heart, swung desperately at me, I felt their nails digging into my flesh before they were lost to the storm, I was wet, bleeding, not ashamed to admit I might have pissed myself as I clung desperately to the Foremast as our boat began sinking. I was part of the next few to die, in retrospect I should have seen it coming, clinging to a large wooden pole I was just begging to be struck by Lightning. I will forever remember that moment, my first death, I smelt blood and burning skin and my charred half living body fell from the pole, my grip lost I was sucked into the maw of the sea and before I even realized it I was dead, the details of the ship's demise are fuzzy, since Yonas the only one of the crew who lived to see, she said it was like a nightmare in come to life without warning the remains of the mast turned to ash, then the fire came to light, a brilliant blue blaze sprung to life and devoured the ship in seconds, Yona died before she even felt the burn, and just like that the ship was gone.

I remember waking up at the home Island, the broken mountain where it all started, looking around at the original crew, you where laughing Pumpkin, you, Scootaloo, and Derpy had all died a month prior, who where just sitting there, waiting for us to come home. Neither Scootaloo or Derpy where happy to hear about the rest of the crew, It was the one and only time the Midnight Pirates truly said goodbye to their friends, set up a memorial, I have looked at the think in a decade, Don't think any of us have, it's easy to remember then as forgotten nobodies, but if I where to look at that think, read their names, remember who they where, well...death wouldn't be so funny.

Pumpkin looked at Braeburn for a moment as he stared into the swirling storm.

"Where is the memorial?" Pumpkin asked, earning a smile from Braeburn.

"It's on the original island, nice big and easy to see, but with all the other islands we've poached and hooked up to home you'd have one hell of a time trying to find it, think Limestone might know where it is, hides it from us so we don't peak, can't thank her enough for that." Before Braeburn could say more a look of interest came into his eyes. "What the hell?" Pumpkin turned back to the Manehattan island and found what Braeburn was looking at, an old Storm King airship was docked in the Manehattan port, it was beaten to hell and looked as tho it was about to fall from the sky.

"What the hell is that thing?" Pumpkin asked as she looked at it in confusion.

"That...is an old ass airship...no pony in the sky would use it, it's out dated to shit..." Braeburn smiled. "Pumpkin it looks like this shopping trip is gonna be a hell of a lot more interesting that usual.

Author's Note

Just so it's known I will be using Braeburn for most (if not all) Flashback segments of the story.

trying out something different with this chapter.