Midnight Pirates

Once their ship was tied down across from the old Storm King Ship Braeburn and Pumpkin got on the dock and gave it a once over.

"Dang," Braeburn said with a whistle "This old boy must have gotten caught in that storm a few days ago."

"Or maybe," Pumpkin said wiggling her fingers at Braeburn "it got caught in The Storm," The Two smiled before turning to the broken city known as the East Manehattan Skyisland, names so for being the East most remaining of Manehattan. The West and North Sky islands could be seen in the distance, one was a residential area and the other held Factories and Farms for keeping Manehattan East supplied, it's South island had been stolen by The Midnight Pirates 7 years ago out of spite. Braeburn took point and made his way down to the dockmaster to register that they had parked. A Small line stood in their way.

"Morning all," Braeburn said loudly to get the attention of the line, instantly the entire line moved out of his and Pumpkins way and the two made their way to the Ticket master who smiled at Braeburn who removed the bandana from his muzzle and showed himself to be smiling at the old stallion running the booth.

"Braeburn, is it 2nd Wednesday already?"

"You dam right it is Sunfrost," Braeburn said as he pointed to the old Storm King Ship "I'm parked across from that relic, any idea who owns it?" Sunfrost frowned and looked to the rest of the line, getting the idea Braeburn pointed to Pumpkin who adjusted her Trucker hat and turned to the line, pulling her Machette from the sheath on her back.

"Alright, so who wants to leave and who wants to die?" While Pumpkin herself wasn't all that much to be feared, even with a Machette, The rest of the Midnight Pirates were quick to murder or plunder from any who disrespected her. Residents of Manehattan knew this better than any other as Pumpkin had been kicked out of a bar for being too young and the Pirates had stolen North Manehattan, better known as the vice district. East Manehattan now only had one Bar, one that had only been allowed to stay on the island due to existing before the end, and its owner loved the Midnight Pirates for driving all its competition out of business, The Owner of the bar being Sunfrost youngest Daughter, who was happy to help the pirates out whenever they needed a hand. The Line dispersed and after a moment Sunfrost began talking.

"I saw the three who own the thing, where all wearing cloaks, had to stop 'em from leaving without registering to park and check this," Sunfrost opened a drawer and pulled out 5 shiny golden bits.

"They paid in bits?" Braeburn asked wide-eyed as Pumpkin looked over his shoulder.

"What's so special about bits?" She questioned "There just golden coins,"

"Pumpkin you have only ever held actual gold once," Braeburn said looking back at her "What you think of as gold is actual fools gold, a mine full of the stuff was one of the largest surviving area's of the end," Sunfrost handed Braeburn the Bit and he looked at it in silence. "This one coin is worth more than all the treasure we have at the Home island," He said as he rolled it in his fingers.

"Keep it," Sunfrost said as he pocketed to other 4 "Think of it as a token of affection for you and your crew, and my way of asking you to show the same respect for me to my son when he takes over the business in a few months,"

"I'll keep it in mind," Braeburn replied as he pocketed the Bit "Any idea where our stupidly wealthy friends went?"

"I told them to head over to the Bar, Said my Daughter would be happy to serve them all the drinks they might want,"

"To the bar, we go," Braeburn said as he waved farewell to the Dockmaster and he and Pumpkin headed down the main road. They made it five feet before the entire town went into an uproar, shoppers hide from sight, Store runners hide from view, and a fair number of the shoppers ran into the Bar.

"Why the Bar?" Pumpkin asked as she watched them flock to it.

"Spike and I struck a deal with Sunflower, the bar's owner, a few years back. We don't kill anyone inside her bar, We Drink for free,"

"Where's the fun it that?" Pumpkin asked in confusion.

"We can't just kill everyone," Braeburn replied "Life would be unbelievably easy and boring if we just murdered our way threw every situation, besides we start killing some, we'd have to empty out the entire island, then we'd have to learn how to farm and make our own food, and I do not wanna go back to Applebucking," As they arrived at the Bar Braeburn patted Pumpkin on the back. "Look if you really need to kill someone just tell me who It is and we'll wait till the bar closed and have a hunt," Pumpkin smiled at that.

"Oh, I love hunts, can we do war paint?"

"What kind of hunt doesn't have war paint?" Braeburn asked, smiling beneath his bandana before coughing. "Ok, tough guy act, Gotta figure out who these money throwers are, and remember, no killing," He took a deep breath and straightened up before opening the door, he spotted the three in cloaks immediately, they were sitting near the counter and had their backs to the door while whispering to each other.

"Well that was easy," Braeburn muttered as he turned to Pumpkin and pointed to the counter "Let's be chill, no need to get them pissy," Pumpkin nodded and the two made their way to the counter, arriving just in time for one of the cloaked ponies to get up and order drinks. Braeburn looked to the cloaked figure with a raised ear as it asked for something sweet.

"That voice sounds vaguely familiar," He thought before looking to the mare behind to counter who smiled at him.

"Well if it isn't Braeburn," She greeted, instantly the Cloaked mare at the counter and her two friends turned to him with shock in their eyes, but without fear in them. "And Pumpkin to? Well what a pleasant surprise, what happened to Spike?"

"He got stuck in an Equestria Outpost with Yona and Aunti Scootaloo," Pumpkin replied as the Barkeep filled up two mugs and handed them to the duo. Braeburn turned to the mare staring at him in silence, her three friends staring at them with shock as well, one of the ones sitting down's eyes really hit hard.

"I definitely know these people," Braeburn decided before grabbing his drink and heading to a table. They picked one right next to the cloaked mare and her companions, the residents of the table cleared right out, leaving behind food and drink in their rush to get away from the duo. Once he was comfortably seated Braeburn removed his bandana and one of the grey cloaks gasped as his scarred face, ignoring them Braeburn took a swig and turned his attention to Pumpkin.

"You see Pumpkin," He said as she started eating some of the food left on the table "This is how Spike and I go shopping," he cleared his throat and called out. "Who wants us to leave faster?" Without hesitation, a handful of battle-worn stallion and mares headed to the table, and Braeburn took out their shopping list and handed it to a total of 8 of them. "Feel free to use our names to get yourselves something nice," He said before shooing the group out the door.

"Now what?" Pumpkin asked before taking a swig of her brew and gagging a little. "Why is there so much sugar in this?" She amended looking at her drink. Braeburn took the cup and tried it.

"This is what we call in the business, an accident," Braeburn replied "This is a soda with half a bag of sugar mixed in," he frowned at it and turned to the gray cloaked mare staring at them with shining blue eyes and his eyes went wide, he sat in silence as the cloaked figure got up, walked to their table and took the mug and, smiling ear to ear, took a large chug from it.

"Ah. Just the way I like it," She said before dropping her hood and letting her pink mane free, With a smile, she turned to Braeburn as she set the mug down and pulled him into a hug.

"Pinkie, Your not dead!?" Braeburn demanded in pure confusion.

"Your not dead either!" Pinkie cheered as she squeezed to poncho wearing cowboy before turning and squeezing Pumpkin, who just sat there in confusion before pointing to the mare.

"And this is?" She questioned.

"Pinkie Pie," Braeburn replied, emphasizing the Pie part.

"Limestone's sister?" She asked in shock.

"I still have a sister!?" Pinkie demanded with joy, crying at this point before squeezing Pumpkin even harder.

"Please stop," Pumpkin begged "this is getting uncomfortable," as this was going down the entire bar had gone silent and whispered could be heard erupting from the crowd, a few of them about one of the elements of harmony still being around, tho most of them were pondering who the mare was. Hearing the whispered Braeburn got to his hooves and pointed to the Barkeep, who nodded and opened up access to the bar before opening a door marked for employees only.

"Come on, let's have a talk in a less public setting," Braeburn, Pumpkin, and Pinkie all headed to the door with the two still cloaked ponies following after them. They went threw the door, down threw a small hall, and ended up in a room with two tables and a minifridge. Braeburn took a seat and turned to the cloak wearing ponies.

"So who are your friends?" He questioned, the Two dropped their hoods and he went silent as he looked up at Rainbow Dash and his cousin Applejack.

"Jackie!" he cried out before rushing his cousin and hugging her, much to her delight.

"Braeburn," she practically cried out "You're alive,"

'I'm not the last Apple," Braeburn replied crying into her shoulder and repeating the sentence a few times, as this went down Rainbow Dash approached Pumpkin, who looked at her in awe.

"Your Rainbow Dash," She said in a whisper "Auntie Scootaloo use to tell me bedtime stories about you, I asked her to stop when they started getting a little too graphic tho,"

"The Squirts still alive," Rainbow said, looking up at the window "Her Aunt is gonna be so fucking thrilled,"

"My Aunt had an Aunt!?" Pumpkin demands "I wanna be an Aunt!"

"Your mother and brother are still alive," Pinkie said, expecting a reaction from Pumpkin.

"Oh, good for them," Pumpkin replied before turning back to Rainbow dash "So tell me about Scootaloo's aunt,"

"We can all talk later," Braeburn said as he pulled himself back together and covered up his muzzle.

"What happened to your face?" Applejack asked before freezing in place "Oh no, I said that in the worse way, Braeburn why is your face just a scare,"

"I got hit in the face by an exploding mountain," He replied looking back at her "You know When the world ended and all that shit," Braeburn walked away from his cousin to a back door. "Alright, you three put your hoods on, we're heading to the dock and gonna see if we can get a ship big enough to tow your relic to the home island, it'll take around 7 or so hours but when we get there you can say high to the rest of the crew, save for Yona, Spike, and Scootaloo who are at the moment doing their own thing," He waited for the three to put their hoods on and pointed to Pumpkin. "Bring up the rear kid, and try not to get stabbed in the back,"

"Oh haha," Pumpkin said sarcastically "Get stabbed in the back a few dozen times and suddenly it's a thing," The three gave her a worried looked as Braeburn opened the door and lead them outback and down a side alley to the main road. "Alright, quick jolt down to the dock and-oh shit Is that what I think it is?" The 5 looked up at a huge white blimp-like airship floated above east Manehattan, on the side of it was a crude painting of a Half-Moon on fire.

"Friend of yours?" Rainbow asked as she looked up at it.

"We'll their your friends too," Braeburn replied as a spotlight on the Airship brightly shown over them, after a second the light went dead and a rope ladder dropped, hanging onto it was a Dragon with a hook.

"Spike," Pumpkin waved when she spotted him "The fuck took you guys so long?"

"We accidentally started a cult," Spike replied as he hit the ground "Hey did you guys see that old relic at the doc?"

"Yeah, where towing it and are old friends here to Home island," Spink looked at the closet one in a grey cloak inquisitively and Rainbow pulled it back just far enough for him to see her face, on of concern upon getting a good look at Spike half-scared face and missing hand.

"Oh shit," Spike said in shock "Scootaloo's gonna have a raging lady boner when she sees you again,"

"Wow," Braeburn said with a smile "Spike you just talked to a mare without offering to sell your body for sex,"

"No, but I worked in a sex joke," Spike replied as he walked past them "You guys have fun at the dock, I'm gonna go see if any mares wanna go for a roll in the hay," Spike waved a peace sign and walked past them and into the bar.

"I have a lot of questions," Applejack decided.

"And all will be answered on the long ride home, now let's get you guys to the dock, I dunno what a lady Bonner is but it sounds funny and I wanna see Scootaloo get one"