Chapters Prologue - The Day the world went to Shit.
Author's Note
Sorry if this is long winded and bad, just something I've been working on while I was sick.
also is it Prolog or Prologue
(Chapter has been Edited)
Prologue - The Day the world went to Shit.
Spike sighed as he leaned back in his seat, he had ended up in some particularly odd company due to what was happening. He and every other creature on the train were on their way to a very special event hosted by Twilight and the other Princesses. Twilight and the Main 6 had gone to Canterlot after a summons and had sent him a letter saying some cosmic event was happening and that it seemed impossible or something, Spike had lost track of the letter before finishing it due to a poorly timed sneeze. The Train was full of every creature who could afford a train ticket and the return trip, Spike could see friends, random ponies he knew of, and a few he disliked, The seats were all jammed full, with some housing up to 6 creatures on them.
Sitting next to him on his right was Gabby, who was reading a book she had brought with her, and on her right was the window. On Spike's left was Vinyl Scratch, who was jamming out to some tunes, next in the row sat Braeburn, who was striking up a conversation with the pony next to him named Limestone Pie, who had been somewhat ignoring him until the realization he was an apple and possible a cousin of hers, which was something she was ecstatic to hear.
"How did I end up here?" Spike asked the cramped cart.
"I asked myself the same thing," Vinyl said to his surprise.
"I thought you were jamming out?" Spike said in shock as she took her headphones off and looked over at him.
"You said that just as that sweet spot when the song ends and right before the music picks back up," On cue, Spike heard her headphones chime with song just before she hit the button on the side that paused her tunes. "Your Spike right?"
"What in the world transpired that resulted in you knowing that?" Spike asked in confusion.
"I went to a club in the Crystal Empire-" Vinyl said and Spike nodded.
"Say no more," He said with a smile before their conversation could continue or end the Train lurched hard and the 5 ended up piled over each other, the rest of the carts residents having similar problems, some ending up on the floor.
"That's not a thing that's suppose to happen right?" Limestone demanded, having never really gone on a train before.
"Defiantly not," Every creature in earshot of her replied at once as the Train continued moving, now shaking hard.
"Did we just derail!" Gabby demanded from under Spike. Spike and Braeburn both looked out the window, it was making its way up the mountain that housed Canterlot and they had a perfect view of the world, the ground was cracking as far as the eye could see, the sky and the clouds themselves seemed to be falling, The two watched in silent horror as the City of Cloudsdale plummeted like a rock to the ground.
"Holy Shit," The Two said in unison as Gabby, Vinyl, Limestone got into a position where they could see. Before they could verbally react the Train lurched again and they watched as their view tilted ever so lightly.
"The Trains falling off the Mountain," Spike said in horror as Panic spread through the train car.
"GET OFF ME AND MOVE THEN!" Gabby screamed out, Limestone being on top attempted to help Braeburn up but another lurch sent them both to the floor, Limestone fell on her side and Braeburn was instead meet with an oddly painless Face-planted into an invisible wall, he blinked as a dome covered all 5 of them, around the train car more and more domes appeared, He blinked as he leaned into it and he, along with the other 4, turned to look at Vinyl who was curled uptight, her horn glowing brightly.
"Um?" Limestone said when suddenly she and the rest of the group suddenly felt like jello for a moment, a panic started for half a second before Spike called out.
"CHILL!" at the top of his voice, they looked as he slowly held his arms up. "This isn't a normal shield it's an anti-force shield, also known as the Jello dome and the Safety net,"
"Spike your one of my best friends but please don't throw trivia at as and tell us why we should chill on a train falling off a mountain?" Gabby demanded.
"This dome sticks to a surface and has a hard outer shell while at the same time making the inside like Jelly, it's used to limit the chance of falling to your death, it's used by a lot of professionals and I have no idea how or why Vinyl knows it but thank your ass she does!" Before any of the others could continue their questions or their panic they all started vibrating, around them the passengers went flying away to one side as the train tipped, not towards the plummeting mountain edge, but towards the side of the mountain. the train flew on with speed as the passengers when flying, one of them struck the side of their dome and busted their nose on it as they clawed desperately at it, Spike recognized her as Nurse Red Heart before she went flying again, she went about 5 feet before the dome twisted and lurched out at her, encasing her in it. She looked around for a moment before being pulled into the now slightly larger down and being put next to Braeburn and Limestone, who were both holding on to each other tightly.
"Alright let's try this," Vinyl said as she started sweating, her dome grew tentacles as began lashing out, whenever it touched a pony they where encase and the dome got bigger. The train grinded to a halt and the final count for the dome was around 9 or so, Spike looked over at Red heart who was holding onto Derpy who's left arm was broken, Spike and Gabby where now being held tightly by a scared Yona, whose friends hadn't been in the same train car. Spike managed to also pick out Scootaloo in the mess, tightly holding onto Pumpkin cake, who was crying out for a mother and a father who were both missing from the dome, he noticed that Pound cake was also missing but heard no crying elsewhere and silently hoped the young cake had been on an early train with one of his parents, the number of creatures rushing to Canterlot was massive so he could buy that they had been separated. Spike was sidetracked when the Train slammed to an immediate stop and the Bodies went flying before laying still. Before Spike could look around something caught his and everypony else eye as the heap of bodies laying below them had slight movement in it. The dome slowly crawled down to the floor that had been a wall mere moments ago. As soon as the Dome hit the ground it popped like a Balloon and they all fell over, Spike pulled himself out and saw Vinyl laying on the heap and immediately helped his savior up, The rest of the survivors slowly got to their respective hooves and feet and began looking for the movement they had noticed. Spike looked down at Vinyl, her glasses had fallen off in the fall but otherwise, she seemed fine, just exhausted.
"A few years back," She said with heavy breath "One of my roadies fell off the stage and another one tried to catch him with a shield spell, his neck snapped on impact," She looked up at Spike "I spent the next 8 months with all the ponies in my crew learning how to cast that spell so that never happened again," She smiled "Guess I'm the hero of the Crystal empires Hero now," Spike gave her a smile before the train shook again, not from falling but from the very earth below them shaking.
"found them!" Red Heart called as she and Yona found the still-living creature in the mass of dead, they moved a corpse or two and removed a half-conscious Time Turner from the mess.
"Thanks," He managed to say before nodding out, Yona held the colt up and the group looked around before Gabby found what they where looking for.
"Emergency hatch!" She called from the wall that had originally been the roof.
"Yona no fit through that!" Yona complained.
"I'll teleport you out once I'm out," Vinyl replied as she only just got to her hooves. "After witch Spike is in charge of carrying my exhausted ass to Canterlot," Gabby opened the hatch and one by one the group moved out, After handing Time Turner off through the Hole Yona was teleported out and Spike picked Vinyl up, who was just laying in his arms sweating. "Need to use magic more," She muttered.
"I know a pony could help with that," Spike replied before looking at the problem, smoke was pouring into the sky where the Train engine was, the cart behind them was dangling off the edge with the back half cleanly cut off by something, the cart in front of them had been buried in a rock slide that was also cutting off their way forward. "Where do we go now?" He asked the group there was no response as the group looked around, the patch back down was easier, but the walk up would lead to the city of Canterlot and that sounded safer as it currently housed all the Princesses, but it would also house danger as the Mountain seemed to be crumbling even as they thought it over, as the group argued over what to do Braeburn noticed Limestone was staring silently as the Train car that had been cut in half.
"Any pony you know in that car?" He asked as he looked at it, it was dangling over the cliff, it's lower half, the rest of the cars, and most likely all of its passengers could be seen near the base of the mountain.
"My sister Maud," She said quietly before pointing to the one that had been crushed "My Sister Marble," Braeburn stood in silence as Limestone stared blankly at the wreck that has claimed the lives of her siblings.
"I'll leave you to your Grieving," Braeburn said respectfully before backing off, as he did Limestone made her way to the train and looked at the Emergency hatch of the broken cart, she sat in silence for a few moments, a few tears making their way down her face as she looked at it in silence, before she could leave Yona, after handing Time Turner to Red Heart, made her way to the hatch and with little ease tore it open and stuck her head inside.
"Yona calling for surviving members of train," She called out loudly, after a moment of no response she pulled her head out, unlike Limestone she had let her grief known to the world as she sat down and balled her eyes out.
"You have friends on board?" Limestone asked.
"Yona had several Friends on board," She howled back, Limestone looked at the yak for a moment before patting her head softly.
"My sister's where onboard," She said, instantly Yona grabbed Limestone and smothered her in a hug "Crap," She muttered as Yona wailed holding her new friends.
"Yona sorry for loss new friend," She cried out.
"I appreciate that," Limestone said as she pulled back, "But we have to stay strong, my sister Pinkie is still in Canterlot, are any of your friends in Canterlot?" Yona sniffed as she held onto Limestone.
"Yona's Friends Ocellus and Smolder went on an early train," She shifted as she got back to her feet and set Limestone down. "Yona must stay strong, be rock for friends when she tells them what has happened," Yona was still crying but she stood strong as she marched back to the group with Limestone.
"Ow, ow, ow," Derpy said as Red Heart helped her up.
"Dont wurry, cantalot haffe grek hospitl," Red Heart said through her broken nose and missing teeth. "They pak ou uk good," Derpy looked at Red Heart in confusion.
"Hu?"
"Don't worry about it," Limestone said as she looked down at Time Turner, he was conscious again and looked to be in in great pain.
"Yup," He managed to say "These are some broken ass ribs," while Yona gingerly picked him up Spike and Vinyl were sitting with Scootaloo and Pumpkin, who was still crying for her parents,"
"I was sitting with Mr.Cake," Scootaloo said as she stared blankly at the train "He had to use the bathroom and asked me to watch Pumpkin for a minute, I was more than happy to but then the Train started shaking and..." Scootaloo sat in silence as he held the crying baby, Spike looked at her and she looked back at him balling.
"May I?" Spike asked Scootaloo handed Spike Pumpkin and he removed her from the blanket, her right arm was bruised but other than that Scootaloo had done a fine job shielding the baby from the chaos, Spike looked at her and rocked her in his arms as she cried.
"What do you think the odds of Mrs.Cake being on an early train are?" He asked Scootaloo.
"Apple Bloom and Sweetie got on the early train with Mrs. Cheerliee," one of my Aunts was sick so they asked the Cakes to take me, Mrs.Cake and Pound were on the early Train due to how packed the station was.
"Oh thank Celestia," Spike sighed as he looked at the crying foal, "Alright then I'm going to Canterlot," He said as he handed Pumpkin back to Scootaloo "who's joining me in this nightmare hike? Scootaloo you and Pumpkin are coming with me rather you like it or not,"
"Yona must be rock for friends," Yona said as she marched over with Time Turner.
"I'm just kind of luggage at the moment," Time turner said with a strained voice "Just take me where ever a hospital is,"
"Were Coming," Derpy said, Red Heart waving at them, her faces burning with pain every time she moved it.
"Let get out asses moving," Limestone said as Gabby and Braeburn made their way to Vinyl.
"I'm in," Vinyl said.
"And I'm not about to head down this nightmare alone," Gabby agreed.
"I got Family waiting for me up there," Braeburn added
"Epic," Spike said as he turned to the rock pile. "How the hell are we doing this?" He asked, there was a moment of silence.
"Man this epic quest died instantly," Braeburn said with a head shake, "we can't go up, but we'd never make it down the mountain and to a town before several of use died from wounds and exhaustion."
"If I die please don't ditch my body," Timer Turner called out "I Don't wanna be a gutter corpse,"
"OK let's all calm down," Spike said as he pinched the bridge of his nose "Vinyl can you...?"
"Whatever it is, not until I've had a good rest," She replied "I'm not about to give my self a heart attack from Magic strain,"
"Limestone?" Spike asked pointing to her.
"If Maud was here..." She said as she looked at the pile of rocks with a frown, Spike turned to look at the party before blinking.
"My Dumb ass," He said as he slapped himself in the face "Alight this will suck, Yona come here," Yona walked over staring at Spike suspiciously.
"What is Spike wanting?" she asked Spike who turned his back to her.
"I need you to stomp on my tail as hard as you can," Yona looked at Spike for a moment.
"Yona wishes to know why,"
"Signal flare," Spike replied, Yona looked at Spike, bite her lip and took a deep breath.
"Sorry friend," She said before crushing Spikes tail with all her might, Spike let out a scream before spitting a stream of Green Fire into the air. The Group watched as green fire filled the sky.
"FUCK!" Spike screaming getting their attention as he held his tail gingerly as he tried not to cry "Oh I'm gonna feel that for weeks,"
"Dam," Limestone said as she looked up at the fire "That should get some atten-" Limestone cut off when the ground began shaking violently again, Gabby and Vinyl fell over as Braeburn hugged the wall, Limestone fell into Derpy, who yelled in pain as she fell on her broken arm, Scootaloo Held Pumpkin tightly as she pushed her back into mountain wall, Yona stood firm through the shaking and called out.
"TO YONA, SHE WILL BE YOUR ROCK!!" Spike Tried to turn to her but fell back instead and hit the back of his head on the rocks, Spike's blinked as the world went fuzzy and failed to stay on balance, as he fell over, only for Braeburn to Grab him and hall him to Yona. Red Heart and Limestone picked up Derpy and held onto Yonas back, Gabby and Vinyl grabbed Scootaloo and Pumpkin before moving as fast as they could through the shaking to Yona. Timer Turner held out his hand and held onto Spike in an attempt to help in some way. Suddenly a light shone above them, they all looked up as Canterlot was developed in light, then everything exploded into blinding light and deafening sound.
Vinyl opened her eyes with a jolt, the members of the group were all laying around her and were all starting to stir, her attention shifted when she felt a dull pain in her leg, as tho she had just kicked a table she looked down and froze, her right leg was covered in burns, and at the midpoint of her calf her right hoof was missing, she held her leg in silence, Panic filling her as she looked at her damaged leg that didn't hurt nearly as much as it should.
"Oh shit," She heard Spike's voice call out and She looked over at him and her eyes went wide, the entire left side of Spike's face looked like her leg, and his left hand was missing similar to her right leg and the remaining arm was burnt as well, the two looked at each other in silence as their friends began moving.
Gabby rubbed her face and looked at her hands, they where both burn down to her elbows.
Red Heart had burns that could be seen around her neck and around the upper part of her left arm.
Braeburns entire Face was covered in the burns, his left ear as well, his right ear still looked fine.
Derpy blinked, the area around her left eye was burnt, but the eye itself was now missing from its socket.
Yona's right horn was broken and her legs where both covered in the burns.
Limestone lay on her back, her Stomach covered in Burns.
Timer Turner's chest was covered in the burns.
Scootaloo's right arm and leg where both covered in the burns, tho she lost interest in herself and quickly checked Pumpkin, the arm that had been bruised was covered in the burns but she was otherwise fine, she wasn't even crying. as the group looked around at each other they also became aware of where they were, they where on a large chunk of land, a piece of the mountain wall was next to them, and the train car they had been on was now just a pile of broken mettle, and to make things weirder they seemed to just be floating in the sky. As they looked around and at each other only one question could be asked.
"What just happened?"
Chapter 1 - The Curse of Nightmares
The ship was burning, laughter could be heard as the crew slaughtered there enemies, Their captain Iron Maw was laughing.
"What a Joke," He said as he walked across the deck "Beware the Midnight pirates, they can't be killed, scariest Pirates to ever sail the skies" He looked at the corpse of a gray mare that had been wearing an eye patch, "Looks pretty dead to me," he laughed as he picked up his hooves and struck the gray mare's head, crushing her skull with a laugh. "Maybe if they'd actually had a crew they might have been something to remember," as he laughed two of his men dragged the last two survivors out and he looked at them with a smile.
"Why if it isn't the feared Captain Vinyl and Her First mate Spike the Dragon,"
"I'm also the chef," Spike said with a wave, earning a back hand from the one who had brought him out, Iron Maws First Mate Silver Mask smiled at Spike as he tossed the hook that had been his left hand to the ground. Spike looked at him with a scowl. "I'm gonna remember that," he muttered before looking away from the first mate and back to the captain, who smiled and held his hands out.
"So, this is it?" He asked "This is the band of Pirates known as the Midnight Pirates? I'll be honest, I'm disappointed,"
"Well maybe next time you should issue a challenge, not attack during lunch like a bitch," Vinyl said earning a smile from Spike.
"Why you gotta go offending all the bitches in the universe by tossing this trash in with 'em?" Spike asked, Iron Maw smiled and Smacked Vinyl across the mouth with his metal gauntlets, Vinyl spit out some blood and teeth before smiling.
"I'm gonna remember that,"
"You know that's funny," The pony holding her down said "that's what the rest of your crew said before we killed them, I wonder if they still remember that," He smiled at her as Iron Maw pointed to Spike.
"Silver Mask Skin that one, I want his scales for my new gauntlets,"
"How original," Spike said with an eye roll and Iron Maw smiled.
"Well you only get skinned once, Keep him as alive and awake as possible while doing it," Vinyl whistled.
"Well shit, guess there are times when I should shut up," Spike said with a laugh as he was dragged to Iron Maw's ship "You know Vinyl's right you are a bitch," he called before getting dragged below deck, Iron Maw smiled as he looked down at Vinyl who rolled her eyes.
"So you gonna kill me? Try and Rape me or some sad shit like that?"
"Don't be silly," Iron Maw said with a laugh "Why would I get in bed with an ugly ass mug like yours,"
"Dam Spike was right, your are the Bitchiest bitch," There was a moment of silence before she added "Sorry we keep calling you a bitch, but you didn't really give us time to come up with better insults so were just repeating the one," Laughter suddenly echoed from Iron Maws boat as the sound of ripping flew could be heard, then a voice sounded out.
"Come on, you can do better than that," Iron Maw raised a brow and looked over at Vinyl as he drew is flintlock.
"Your the strangest fuckers I've ever killed," he said as he pointed the flintlock at her head.
"Your not the first to say that," Vinyl said with a smile before Iron Maw pulled the trigger, Her corpse fell to the ground and Spike's laughter died out.
"Bunch of freaks," He said with a head shake before calling out. "Hook up the boat, we're towing it home, this time tomorrow we'll be the most well known Pirates in the Sky!
Iron Maw was shaking as he ran, Laughter echoing all through out the building, The sun had set less than 10 minutes ago, and in that time almost all of his crew had been slaughtered, He ran into his head quarters where Silver Mask was emptying there private loot.
"What the fuck is happening?" he demanded.
"Don't know, Don't care, Grab the loot and move your ass," Iron Maw said as he helped him shovel it into a bag, Once it was full they tied it shut and turned, only to meet the eyes of two smiling demons.
"Sup bitches?" Vinyl and Spike asked, There bodies were black as night, there eyes and mouth glowing orange, their clothes where all dark purple and shimmering with light. Vinyl's Peg leg was also glowing orange and Spike's hook was glowing orange as well. Iron Maw and Silver Mask stared at them in horror. and the two smiled at each other.
"Haven't you heard?" Vinyl asked.
"We can't die," Spike added as he held up his hook and looked at Silver mask "now usually I'd make it quick but as I've been told," He gave a nasty smile "You only get skinned alive once," Silver mask rushed to the back wall of the room in terror holding his treasure bag like a weapon.
"Get away from he," He said whimpering "get away," As Spike began moving to him Vinyl pointed her hands at Iron maw and made a finger gun.
"We always remember," She said happily "and come night we always get our revenge," Vinyl's horn light up with orange magic and collected around her figure.
"Wait..." Iron Maw begged.
"Bang," Vinyl said and the energy shot from her finger and into Iron Maw's skull, his body fell on to the desk like a brick and she looked over at Spike who was holding Silver Mask. "Hey Spike," She said getting his attention as she pointed to the door.
"There's ships just outside, lets use the same thing he used on you,"
"Oh hell yeah," Spike smiled as he pulled Silver Mask out of the room, screaming for mercy "Attention Midnight Pirates, I will now be showing you all the right ways to skin someone alive,"
Chapter 2 - A Cakes Big Day
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Chapter 3 - The Storm, the Yak, and the Cannon
The party had died down by the time the sun was setting, Scootaloo had kept her promise and stayed alive the entire day, But Limestone and Yona had accidentally killed themselves with a botched attempt to turn a grenade into a firework, and Time Turner had gotten drunk and fallen into the Body pile, much to the laughter of his peers, Pumpkin, Gabby, and Scootaloo were singing a sea shanty while Vinyl and Red Heart were packing up the party supplies while Derpy was taking Pumpkins present's back to their ship, There ship was large, much larger than a crew of 11 really needed, It had two crows nests, and over 30 rooms, one of the crow's nest had a spiral staircase while the other had a ladder, The ship's name was the Midnight Ride III and they'd had it for about 5 or so years. As a result of its large size and small crew, the ship never moved quite as it should since all the requirements to get it going couldn't be met at once. Derpy was coming back from below deck after depositing the presents when the moon rose and the curse took effect, Derpy turned black as Night, her Eye turned orange and so did her mouth and mane, her Eye patch and the rest of her clothes turned Purple but the Googly eye and earring turned orange.
Vinyl and Red Heart both turned black as well, Red Heart's earring and apron both turned orange along with her mane as the rest of her clothes went Purple. Vinyl's peg leg turned orange as did the buttons on her shirt as well as her mane, her clothes and glasses turning purple, giving the side that still had a lens and odd mixture of both orange and Purple as her eye shined behind it.
Pumpkin had no extra orange accessories, and the lenses in Gabby's goggles turned orange along with the parts of her arm that were usually yellow, Scootaloo's shades, and the spikes on her shoulder turned orange along with her mane. The Body pile was now just chard remains, a Hand shot out and Time Turner pulled himself out of the mess, his Slippers and Tie Both orange along with his mane, Braeburn picked himself off the ground and licked his fixed teeth, his Hat, and Poncho a mixture of Purple and Orange, His mane, however, was Purple. Blackness swirled around them for a moment and Yona and Limestone's body pulled the blown apart corpses back together.
Yona shook her head, her Horns glowing orange along with the cloth around her waist, an orange light could be seen emanating from the top of Limestone's bag but save for that none of her clothes were orange. Spike stretched as he got to his feet, his Hook and Apron both blowing orange along with his spines. As the group all looked at each other the risen dead all asked in unison.
"I miss anything?"
"Spike, Braeburn" Vinyl pointed to the boat "Cake's waiting for you in your rooms, hurry before it attracts flies," The two immediately rushed to the boat, quickly wishing Pumpkin a Happy Birthday one more time as they did so. Vinyl held her hand up "We packing up, loot what you want from this useless rock, if you're not on the ship in 20 minutes you suck," With that, she levitated the empty table and Red Heart pushed the trolley after her with the dirty dishes and some leftover food and booze. Without hesitation, the still remaining crew rushed to the building, With Derpy joining in as she flew off the deck of the ship.
Yona was the last one to come back at the 21-minute mark, she was lugging a nice sofa she's found on the third floor and it had gotten stuck, after explaining what had happened she was deemed not to suck and the Ship took to the sky, Derpy, Spike, and Pumpkin lined up the Cannons as the Solar sails switched to Lunar mode and shot Iron Maw's ship out of the sky, waving from its flag pole was Silver Mask's skin.
"That guy sucked," Spike said as he eyed the falling boat.
"Iron Maw or Silver Mask?" Pumpkin asked.
"Yes," Spike replied simply as he made his way below Deck, Braeburn was at the wheel and Derpy was in the tall crow's nest, Derpy would usually be in the smaller one and Gabby in the tall one but Gabby had been given the night off. Spike made his way deeper into the bowels of the ship and arrived at the kitchen. He Marched in and found his cooking crew, about 30 or so Mice that he had trained to help with the cooking, everyone was usually poisoned by his cooking in some way, but that just made eating more fun.
"Lewis," He called out and a Particularly far Rat wearing a tiny chef's hat made its presence known "My Cake?" The Rat squeaked and three more pushed the plate forward he inspected it and upon finding no nibbles held his hook up "Have at it," The Rats swarmed the slice immediately as Lewis took point on Spike's shoulder and squeaked at him. "I know right?" He replied with a laugh as he searched through the cabinets. After a moment he pulled out a bottle and popped it open, pouring some of it into a cup for him and some into a tiny bowl, Lewis jumped off him and began drinking from the Bowl as Spike swigged his cup, "You guys been practicing your evacuation maneuvers?" Spike asked the Rat who squeaked at him in response. "Good, Don't want what happened when The the 2nd Midnight Ride went down to happen again, lost a lot of good rats that day," Lewis agreed and the two continued drinking before Spike got up "Scootaloo's Ban is up, Don't K.O.S her if she comes in," Lewis squeaked as he finished his drink and spread the news." Spike left the kitchen and made his way down the hall before knocking on a door, Gabby opened it and once she saw it was him pulled him into the room.
"About dam time, Strip I've been waiting too long for this" as Gabby closed the Door Red Heart giggled at the scene from down the hall, Her door and windows where open, Three Birds were roosting in her and Derpy's room, two where sleeping, one of them was a large Brown Owl named Barney, another was an Exotic red bird Rachel, and the last was a Crow named Marvin, Barney was the only one awake at the moment and hooted at her.
"No you can't go into the kitchen," Red Heart said as she looked into a habitat with a large number of Mice living in it "These mice are much healthier than Spike's diseased rats, no offense to Lewis of course he's a fine co-chef but he and his crew do have a history of poisoning us," Barney hooted at her and she frowned. "Keep talking like that and you'll only get one Mouse for dinner,"
Braeburn looked out at the endless sky and pulled down his bandanna so it was around his neck instead of his muzzle. He inhaled and sighed at the smell that hit his nose.
"Derpy what are you smoking up there?"
"Iron maw had some Mary Jane in his stash," Derpy replied "Want some?"
"Not at the moment but save me some will ya?"
"Roger that," She replied with a salute he had no hope of seeing, "There's a storm building to the west, we'll have to land the ship and strap her down when we get back." Braeburn looked down and called to the room below him.
"Vinyl you hear that?"
"I heard," Vinyl's muffled voice replied from the room below them, She was sitting at a desk and writing on a map, she had soft music playing behind her, it wasn't something she preferred but it reminded her of Octavia, and since she had no idea if Octavia had survived the events of 20 years ago she liked to think Octavia was somewhere out in the world listening to some sick beats in remembrance of her. The Map on her desk was covered in X's and circles, she pinpointed a small island on the map and put an X on it with a smile. "Bye Bye Iron Maw," She whispered before getting up and heading out to check out the storm, She made her way to the Crows nest and found Derpy smoking a joint while looking out at the sky.
"Hell of a place to get high," She said with a smile.
"You have no idea," Derpy replied before pointing to the west, Vinyl had no trouble seeing the storm, her cursed eyes let her see in the dark even better than she could in the day.
"Yeah that's a storm," Vinyl said with a head shake "looking to be one hell of a one-two, Braeburn what are our options?"
"We could go the charted path but we could get caught and lose the ship," Vinyl groaned at the option, The crew would all be fine, and would just wake up the next night at home, but there ship, Spike's Rat's, and Red Hearts Birds would all be lost.
"Is there still an equestrian outpost on Island C-89?"
"Last I checked," Braeburn replied "And that wasn't even a week ago,"
"Dammit," Vinyl grumbled "OK Head towards it, I'll give everyone else a heads up," Vinyl headed into the map room and scrambled for her intercom for a moment before speaking into it.
"Attention, Storm incoming, where gonna have to take a short cut, Equestrian Out Post on Island C-89, we'll be passing it noon tomorrow at the latest, no suicides or murders until Dinner, I repeat no Suicides or murders until Dinner, or Spike and Red Heart will prevent you from dying for a long ass time."
"Mother Fucker," Scootaloo said angrily when she heard the announcement, a Bottle in her hands, She shared a Bed Room with Pumpkin, Pumpkin had a mattress while she slept in a hammock, in Pumpkins hands were the pills.
"Aw," Pumpkin groaned as she looked at the lid she had just opened "We should have moved faster,"
"Sorry Kiddo," Scootaloo said as she put the bottle back in the cabinet and shut it. "Guess your first overdose will have to wait till tomorrow," Pumpkin pouted and Scootaloo.
"Let's focus on something else, Spike's like the ships whore at this point, maybe you could lose your virginity to him?"
"Naw," Pumpkin sighed, "He said my first time should be with someone I care romanticly," Scootaloo nodded.
"That's a pretty good lesson, I'll have to cut his head off later...or sleep with him, Maybe both? he'll fucking love that,"
"Oh!" Pumpkin said with a smile "What about you?"
"Oh honey," Scootaloo said with a laugh as her face turned red "That's sweet in a weird way but that's like the only rule I have as your aunt, you can't fuck your aunt," Pumpkin groaned as she thought for a moment "Oh, what about Yona?" Scootaloo opened her mouth, then closed it.
"Maybe as your second time, Yona has a habit of killing her partner in the bed, Braeburn listed it as his personal favorite way to die," Pumpkin pouted as Scootaloo tried to pick from the remaining crew.
"Gabby? No, she's not into ladies. Time Turner? Naw he gets way too clingy if you sleep with him. Braeburn? No...no he's only into Buffalo's and Yaks." Scootaloo groaned as she hit the end of her list "Derpy and Red Heart are in a committed relationship and only sleep with each other, And I think Limestone's either Asexual or Making Spike work his ass off for it, Dam to the void this is so problematic!" as Scootaloo tried to figure out who Pumpkin should sleep with Pumpkin got into her bed and began looking through her equestrian history book.
Yona sighed when she heard the announcement, Limestone was helping her with the sofa to avoid scratching the floor of the ship and shook her head.
"Well, this sucks," Limestone complained as she looked over at Yona "I was gonna push Derpy out of the Watch Tower, She's getting high and She always recovered in mid-air but slams her head against the Crows nest on the way up and falls down to her doom when she's high," Limestone smiled "It's always so funny,"
"Yona demands to view after murder ban over!"
"Well make a day of it," Limestone said with a smile "We can Cut Spikes head off, and to top it off you can rut Braeburn to death while I play with Spike's dead body," Yona raised a brow and she elaborated "Not that kind of play, I was thinking of having tea with it, just a nice quiet drink with my best friend who never shuts up," Yona chuckled at that.
"Yona loves sound of it, lets finish moving sofa and plan day,"
"Shame," Spike said as he and Gabby lay in bed "I was gonna let the Rat's eat me as a surprise,"
"Spike don't be silly," Gabby said as she cuddled him "Someone was gonna cut your head off and there's no way you'd pass that up," Spike smiled at her.
"Yeah, I'll probably be decapitated the second we're out of danger,"
"That's the spirit," Gabby said with a yawn as she fell asleep holding him, Spike moved a little and was sleeping not too soon after.
The Equestrian camp could just be seen in the distance, the sun was just starting to rise so the crew was all back to normal. Everyone was on deck as the rain slowly began drizzling on them signifying they didn't have much time before the storm began really hitting har. Gabby was in the large Crow's nest while Derpy was in the smaller one, Scootaloo, Timer Turner, and Pumpkin where on Cannons while Spike and Yona were trying to pull the anchor out of its place and onto the deck as the Equestrian Outposts had gained infamy for locking onto a ship's anchor and forcing them to either land or crash.
"Ready?" Vinyl asked looking at the duo.
"Yona can't pull anchor to the deck,"
"That's cause it's not supposed to go on the deck," Spike replied, both had a strain in there voices as they lifted the heavy hunk of metal, The anchor was shaped more like a claw as it was designed to chain the ship to land. "And we can't just break it off, it would take weeks to fix the dam thing," The two had the chain in their hands as they pulled on it, the chain was hooked up to a large wheel on deck, both Spike and Yona were sure that if they tried to keep the anchor up by pushing on the wheel it would certainly break and bring the anchor crashing down.
"Alright," Vinyl said as she lit her horn "Camo-Spell active, Go as fastly slow as we can,"
"um...alright," Braeburn said as he pulled a lever next to him, several ropes and pulleys whirled around the ship as
"NOW!" Suddenly Yona and Spike were yanked violently towards the side as a Magnetic Spell pulled on the anchor.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Spike yelped as he lost his footing and was dragged to the side, Yona put her back into it and managed to stop them, the quick moment she bought gave Spike time to get to his feet and help her pull back when the voice sounded again.
"FIRE!!"
"Useless ass Camo-Spell,' Vinyl screamed as Cannons ball's injected themselves into their ship. Vinyl tried pulling on the chain with her magic but a counterspell built into the magnetic spell hit her like a brick and she was slammed into the nearest wall with an arm breaking crack. Braeburn tried to steer away and The Crew fired Cannons at the Ground, only for barriers to come up.
"Dam it all," Scootaloo said as she moved to help Spike and Yona, she wouldn't have helped much, but the Cannon she rolled along with her did. One she was there she parked the canon where the Chain went through the wall, grabbed the chain, and stuck her hooves against the Cannon after a moment of repositioning Spike did the same and the two pulled from the front while Yona pulled from the back, Pumpkin and Red Heart kept firing while Gabby and Derpy screamed insults at their enemies until a Canon ball went through Derpy's Pillar and fell onto the deck, Pumpkin lit her horn and Derpy jumped out as Pumpkin turned the Broken Crows nest to the island below and tossed it at them, it flew through the Barrier like it was nothing and caused some chaos. Braeburn was turning the wheel when he heard cracking he looked over and saw the Anchor wheel was being pulled from the deck.
"Yona look-" There was a crack just as Yona turned to see the wheel flying at her, she didn't have time to react as she was knocked off her feet, the chain went slack and Scootaloo and Spike fell back for a second before Yona and the large wooden wheel hit them and the crew watched as all three flew over the edge and down to the island. They didn't have time to move through as the sudden loss of the anchor sharply flung the ship away from the island, the crew held on to anything they could when Vinyl shouted.
"Full sails, Emergency Boost!" Braeburn pulled a Lever then slammed his hooves on a petal, From the side of the ship 4 pipes shot flames and boosted the ship away from the island, tearing up the open said as it did so. "When they come to life we should thank them for trying," Vinyl added as they rocketed off, back on the island the Equestrian Outpost soldiers looked up at the Trio frozen in Free Fall.
"Tasers set,"
"Hey, that actually hurts like shit," Spike said in shock as multiple soldiers held up long metallic sticks sparking with electricity.
"Fucking sucks," Scootaloo agreed before the voice called out.
"Incapacitate them!" The Three screamed as non-lethal electricity ran through their bodies. "Separate them, contain them, and prepare them for processing,"
Author's Note
And with this we finish the long what they look like segment of our story.
This story is hated so much it hasn't once shown up on Latest updates
Chapter 4 - Easiest Prison Break ever
Yona recoiled as a harsh light woke her from her unwilling sleep, She was strapped to a table, she didn't try struggling as most would as she was hardcore strapped in, every inch of her body bellow her neck had a strap on it, even her hooves had their own special straps.
"Yona compliments strapwork, She not get out without help," The Light was moved and she looked down at a very orderly desk, sitting at it was a Grey Stallion with a Red Mane.
"Yeah that's the idea," He replied as he took notes, he wore a very clean white suit and his facial expression and general body language told Yona he was a douche at the best of times. "I'm sure you have questions," Yona shook her head is disagreement.
"Oh no, Yona know all about Equestrian Cult, you hoping if you bring order to sky Princesses will lower Equestrian border and honor you all as heroes,"
"It is not hope oh simple Yak, It is fact," The Colt held his hands up, every word he spoke making Yona like him a little less. "We posses knowledge your feeble little mind couldn't hope to understand, You and all other like you are a cancer, this is why the Princesses broke the world, for they were saving the pure and discarding the rest, but we have seen the light and will prove ourselves pure to them by cutting the cancer from this world and-"
"No," Yona said simply, cutting him off and confusing him.
"I'm sorry?" He asked.
"Yona will not join cult," She replied simply "Is not first time in Equestrian Outpost, not first time Yona hear long-ass speech, Yona say no fuck off," The Colt looked at her with disgust.
"Your lies are as filthy as your soul, to pretend to have been in an Equestrian Outpost before," he held his arms out to the walls, clean and white "To know of the comforts you could only dream of, while you and the rest of your ilk steal, rape, plunder, and murder-"
"Yona not rape," She interjected ", and can't steal from dead, they dead," The colt continued, ignoring her.
"- we Live in co-operation, we dream of a bright future, and we shall be the one's to make that future happen," He gave her a nasty smile "and it shall be born threw the death of you and others like you," A whirl of gears sounded and the Table Yona was strapped to went flat and made it's way down a convener belt.
"You are Douche," Yona called before he was gone from her sight, as she moves she waited in silence, this being her 2nd time in an outpost she already knew where she was going and it would be boring as hell. After what felt like forever Yona came to a rest in a large room, a total of three other creatures could be seen in similar situations to her, she spied a Minotaur crying for his mother as he pulled on his restraints and a Griffin in a glass jar overhead desperately trying to claw her way threw it, then she spotted a glass jar a little ways from her and a grin spread on her face.
"Spike," She called to get his attention, he turned to her and grinned back, waving at her with his bleeding stump.
"They did it again," he said pointing to the bleeding appendage "This is the 4th time they just cut the hook off, I even told them it was was a strap on not an implanted one and they still broke out their magic buzz saw, he shook his head as he looked at the shitty excuse of a patch up they had done. Yona looked at him in shock.
"Yona thought Spike has been to outpost 5 times not 4," Spike shrugged "Er, the third time they actually listened and took it off," he sighed as the thought back to the day "Dave was a pretty cool guy for a crazy cultist, kind of wish I hadn't been forced to kill him, but he just wouldn't move out of the way," as Spike thought back to good times she looked around.
"Where you think Scootaloo is?" She asked earning a laugh from Spike.
"Oh Yeah I forgot, your first time was just with Gabby," Spike sighed and shook his head "You see, Ponies who disagree have just been corrupted by the cancer in the world and will see the light once the cancer has been cut," Yona thought for a moment before getting it.
"So they just racist?"
"Racist as shit," Spike confirmed when without warning both he and Yona were pumped full of electricity, the two screamed in two different kinds of shock and both turned to the only Pony in the room who had just shocked them,
"Shut up," He said looking at the two "Whatever crazy-ass cancer your spewing-"
"Your mother's a whore," Yona shouted at him.
"She's a even bigger whore than I am!" Spike agreed, The Pony scowled and pumped them full of electricity again, this time earning a painful laugh from the duo.
"I hate electricity," Spike said as he fell into a sitting position laughing.
"Is an irritating pain," Yona agreed "Much prefer fire, pain doesn't last as long," Spike shrugged.
"eh, Time Turner told me Acid is weirdly pleasant after the 3rd time, but I can't ever seem to find any, makes you wonder what that guy does on his holidays," the two earned another shock and neither reacted.
"I think are immunity's back," Yona said with a smile "Should bring some tasers home, un-dull everyone else,"
"That sounds like a fantastic idea," Spike said as the pony shocked them again, looking immensely pissed at the fact that his prisoners were just ignoring their punishment. He turned to go inform his superiors of this when a first collided with his face, Scootaloo smiled as he fell on his ass and kicked him in the jaw, slamming his head into his control console and knocking him out.
"Sorry I'm late," She said with a wave "They shoved me in their prison, I was recognized, they revered me as a god, blah blah blah, caused a riot," Scootaloo shook her head as she pulled out a knife and made her way to Yona to cut her out "Same shit as last time, honestly if these guys would just actually inform others that they had a prison escape they could...you know prevent it from happening again, but no they cover it up, pretend it didn't happen cause they know everything," Yona fell to the ground with a huff and Scootaloo continued talking as she went back to the main controls ", And they never make mistakes, no that's impossible," Scootaloo pressed a button and the two glass jar's rolled to the side, knocking Spike and the Griffin over, the side opened where armed guards would usually then taser them but instead Spike got out and the Griffin took a shaky step on the ground as Scootaloo cut the Minotaur free. "Any way the Riot is going strong, lets steal a boat and..." The second he was free the Minotaur shoved Scootaloo to the side and rushed for the door, they watched him leave and turned to the griffon who was shaking in fear,"
"Ah," Spike said as he watched "Can I keep her?"
"Spike you already have a hundred rats and that one Mare locked up in your room at home," Scootaloo replied "I think it's only fair you let Yona have her," Yona let out a little squeal and picked up the traumatized Griffin like a puppy.
"Don't worry," Yona said sweetly "Yona take you home with her, you have comfy bed, food every day, and if anything hurts you Yona will break their everything," as Yona rocked the shaking griffin back and forth like a baby Scootaloo turned to Spike.
"How is that mare?" Spike shrugged.
"Alive, but I ain't about to pamper that bitch she cut me dick off and I will make her life hell for the rest of her days,"
"Fair," Scootaloo said with a shrug before turning to the door, "Well let's follow the probably dead Minotaur, get outside, steal a boat and take Yonas new pet Griffin home," Scootaloo lead the way and Yona merrily skipped in the back.
"I've always wanted a pet," She said excitedly, "you think Gabby will like her,"
"I think she'll laugh her ass off," Spike replied as he looked at the Griffin who was violently shaking and holding onto Yona for dear life. "So Silent one how long you been here?" The Griffin didn't respond to him in any way. "That long hu?" Spike shook his head "That's a dam shame, poor things broken," Spike stopped for a moment and let Yona pass him as he looked at the Pony Scootaloo had knocked out before putting his foot on his face and putting all his weight on it, after a moment there was a crack, the Griffin tried to look at the sound but Yona shifted her so she couldn't see.
"Don't worry about that, Spike's just breaking the controls," Spike picked his bloody foot up and kicked the Control console, leaving a dent and his bloody footprint on it before following his friends. Upon reaching the main hall they found a riot going strong and could also see their Minotaur friend B-lining it for the exit.
"Oh no, that poor dumb-ass," Scootaloo said with a head shake as the Minotaur ran to the exit, they watched as he made it threw the doorway and without hesitation, every pony guarding the wall filled him with lead.
"Never go out the front door," Spike said with a sigh "darn shame, Braeburn would have loved to keep him as a pet,"
"Yeah," Scootaloo said before pointing to the right, "Docking bay is that-a-way," The group ran as the Riot kept the guards and pretty much every other staff member busy.
"Shame about your worshipers," Spike called out.
"Eh, a few of 'em might bite it but the rest'll just get knocked out with darts or something, either that or they'll overtake the base, if they do that I'll come back and personally give each and every one of them a piece of candy," Scootaloo turned the corner, slid to a stop and jumped out of the way as several darts flew past her.
"Hey fuck off!" She said to the guards, attracting her riot's attention.
"Our Midnight Goddess has summoned two of the other Gods!" One of the Prisoners shouted out.
"Wait I'm a God to?" Spike asked in shock "Bitchin, Hey Don't just blindly rush 'em! Rush the Docks there way less protected and their ships have big ass guns for shooting!" A cheer sounded as the mob split, some continuing to assault the guards while the rest ran to their gods, keeping a respectable distance as several of them bowed to them and the rest turned to corner, quickly overtaking the dock guards with only a few going down.
"This is a big ass riot," Spike noticed as he noticed about a hundred or so had stopped to bow.
"Midnight Yak Goddess-" One of them asked shaking slightly.
"Am Yona," she corrected, instantly a loud praise rang out.
"All Hail Midnight Goddess Yona!"
"Sweet mother of the void," Spike said as he looked around "I'm Spike,"
"All Hail Midnight God Spike!"
"I love all of you,!" Spike shouted out "If you manage to take this Outpost in our name Scootaloo shall give you all a piece of candy!" A cheer rang out and when Spike added. "I am also available for Sexual favors if any mares are interested, just putting that out there," The group sat back and watched as the Riot kicked up to high gear.
"Scootaloo you're a sucky ass god," Spike said with a laugh, She scowled at him.
"Your gonna fucking help me hand out candy," She replied, "And your gonna help me find it all!"
"I'm down with that," Spike replied "we can make a day of it, and we can hand out the candy at night so we look sick as shit while doing it,"
"Yona is excited to get home," She said as she gently rocked the Griffin in her arms, the Griffin was no longer shaking as much but was still plenty terrified, "Yona shall call you Galla until you are not stricken mute with fear," As the riot went on around them Spike yawned.
"You know what fuck this, I'm gonna join the riot," Spike walked into the crowd and it bent around him as he did so. Scootaloo looked at Yona and patted her to get her attention.
"Yona since you have something that can Die I suggest Protecting the shit out of it, I'm gonna go join the other side of the Riot, this fucking place is to close to home and I'm not letting Spike get all the glory for tearing it to the ground. as Scootaloo joined the crowd it bent around her and Yona looked around.
"Yona would like assistance," A huge chunk of the crowd instantly circled around her. "Yona had Griffin," She said showing her new friend off "Yona need good place to sit down so Griffin not die," there was a minute of debate before a decision was made.
"Oh Great Goddess Yona, your injured minion will be safe in the Prison cells,"
"Is not Minion," Yona corrected "Is Pet," there was a good minute of apologizing from the prisoners before they began leading Yona to the cells and formed a tight barricade around the entrance.
Spike marched to the front lines, out of the corner of his eye he could see the sunset, he smiled before turning to the Prisoners.
"Alright so we're gonna take the Docks," Spike said earning a cheer "but to do that I need my hook back," Spike raised his stump "It'll naturally come back to me when the sun sets, but I can see a few mares in this crowed I wouldn't mind shagging so if any of you lovely ladies wanna spend the night with me," Spike thought for a moment "Or the day if you prefer, I get a little freak at night," Spike pointed down a hall. "Hook's that way,"
Spike watched with some amusement as a good 20 mares rushed down the hall, Spike pointed with his stump to the burnt half of his face. "You all can only dream of having that many mares after you, even with this ugly ass face I will probably score more than any of you ever will," He said with a smile before turning back to the task at hand. "Now...lets go kick some ass," Spike pointed ahead of him and his tiny army ran forward, still keeping a respectable distance from him as they ran into the Dock area, Spike smiled before turning to the hall and following the mares.
Spike hummed a tune as he walked down the hall, after a minute he found the mares fighting a group of guards who had been playing cards and had been jumped by the sea of mares. Spike watched from the back as they beat the shit out of them when he noticed one had run into a side room unnoticed and he followed after, the Guard was a big guy and was going for a box on the wall to call for backup, he was cut off from it when Spike spat a fireball at it, the Guard was in full white gear, his head covered in a mask as he turned to Spike and pulled his Gun off his back, he spun the barrel so it would shoot lethal round and shot at Spike, who failed to dodge and was blasted into the wall, the Guard turned to the burning box then made to go out the door and fight when Spike punched him in the face, the remains of Spike's left arm had been blasted to the shoulder and some of his skull could be seen. The Guard fell back and physically retched when he saw Spike who smiled, tearing some of the broken flesh on his face as he did so.
"Everything you do to me I shall do to you only slower," Spike said before rushing forward and headbutting the Guard. The Guard tried to fire again but was distracted when the force of Spikes headbutt pushed him back into the flaming box, Spike watched as the Guard screeched and dropped to the ground to roll, Spike shook his head before taking a deep breath and Spiting out a torrent of flames on the Guard who screamed in agony as Spike walked away. "Have fun cooking," Spike said with a wave as he walked back to the mares just as a mare screamed out.
"I Got it!" Spike looked to the voice and saw Grey Mare with a Yellow mane holding his hook just as he felt the curse taking effect, Spike heard heavy breathing and turned to see the Guard, he had burned but his suit had a fire extinguisher built into it, Spike Left-arm reformed and his hook flew back to its place just as he swung the arm and relieved the guard of his head, the mares stopped and Midnight Spike turned and pointed at the Grey Mare.
"You prefer me like this or during the day?" The Maze looked dumbfounded for a moment before saying.
"This?"
"Alright everyone else go help with the Docks, and you," he Pointed to the Mare "Please wait here While I go commit mass genocide so I can sleep with you faster, feel free to invite any of these mares that might be your friend to wait with you and watch or join us," Spike turned and most of the mares followed after him, most looking irritated or disappointed, to go help with the docks.
Scootaloo made her way to the front of the line where most of the Equestrian Cultists had formed a defensive line against the prisoners, the one that was clearly in charge was a mare speaking unnecessarily into a Megaphone.
"Stand down or we will be forced to use lethal force," Scootaloo looked at the commander for a moment before pointing to the exit where dead the Minotaur lay pumped full of lead.
"Didn't hear you give that guy a warning before offing him," The Commander looked at her and repeated her line into his megaphone. "You know what, I didn't even know that guy," She looked over at the Minotaur "But I'm gonna kill you and all you soldiers simply because you chose not to yell at him through a megaphone to stop running or he'd be shot, mind you I'm sure he wouldn't have stopped, but you didn't even try and frankly that pissed me off," the Mare repeated her lines as Scootaloo and she rolled her eyes. "You know if I was anything but a pony you'd have shot me the second you saw me and that pisses me off more than anything simply because you have the Audacity to say you're doing it in the name of the Princesses, Twilight would-" a Shot rang out as Scootaloo was shot in the knee, she fell to the floor but much to the surprise of the Cultist she didn't skip a beat "-be horrified with your actions, I bet the Reason the barrier is up had nothing to do with the Princesses, it probably has to do with whatever the fuck turned the world into flooding islands and random floating oceans above an endless void, but I like to think that if they are keeping it up, its because a group of mega racist want to commit mass genocide on every nonpony,"
"You dare!" The Commander said glaring at Scootaloo "A pony of your ilk hasn't the right to look at the Princesses name let alone speak it,"
"I use to fucking know Twilight," Scootaloo spat back as the Moon began to rise, "I knew her before she became a Princess, Fuck that Dragon is her adopted brother!" The Crowed behind her went wild as the Bullet came out of her leg and she got back to her feet.
"But guess what?" Scootaloo held up a hand to the Commanders face as the sound of shattering glass could be heard from behind the cult line "This is for killing the Minotaur without warning!" before she could move the Commanders Head exploded as an orange gauntlet with two knifes welded to it flew threw her skill and onto Scootaloo's hand, "Kill them all and you get candy!" She screamed as she lunged forward and began hacking away at the cultists.
Yona was humming a merry tune as she lightly scratched her new Griffin's back, the Griffin was still shaking but seemed to have calmed down a little with Yonas constant affection. Yona was sitting in The Huge ship parked behind the Cult outpost, to her surprise it was a floating Prison ship, a wanted poster of Scootaloo was on the wall along with one of Vinyl and Braeburn, their crimes were listed as Classified and each of there names had of the Midnight Pirates under it witch explained how she had been able to gain a massive cult so fast, easier to get noticed as a Midnight pirate when there a Picture showing your one nearby, Yona smiled at the pictures when a commotion sprang up. She set her Griffin on the bench and patted her softly.
"Yona be back, no panic while away," Yona happily made her way to the commotion and found some of the cells where full of Prisoners still.
"It's a load of crap," One of the Ponies in the cell shouted "The Midnight pirates are just a bunch of piss off, no talent, hacks,"
"Yona here," Yona declared as she made her presence know to the Prisoners both inside and outside the cells.
"Oh, the Midnight Goddess Yona has come to prove you wrong," One of the ones on the outside cheered.
"Oh sure," The pony inside the cell stuck out his teeth and proceed to mock Yona "Look at me I'm immortal, worship me as a god while I sit on my ass as play with some retarded ass Griffin," Yona very easily pulled the Metal apart and picked up the Pony who smiled at her, before she could do anything he pushed his hands up and shoved a makeshift shank into her neck. Yona blinked as the Prisoner smiled "See just a bunch of piss ants the lot of 'em," The Pony waited for Yonas hand to go slack only for her grip to get harder, there was a clattering sound as the shank poped out of Yonas neck. Every Prisoner in the cell moved as far back as they could as Midnight Yona held the Prisoner up.
"No talk shit about Yonas Griffin," She said angrily as she squeezed him harder, the pony tried to say something but Yona Dropped him a little and put her hands on his head, he looked at her in horror before she squeezed and with no effort crushed the Ponies head like a grape, there was a long silence as Yona let the ponies body drop to the ground, she looked around before turning to the nearest Prisoner who stood very still.
"Where can Yona wash hands, blood is bad for petting Griffin,"
"Th...there are sinks in every cell Ma'am," he said shakily Yona thanked him and went to wash her hands before going back to her Griffin, who was understandably scared of her again.
"We...we believe now," On of the prisoners in the cell said shakily.
"Then get you asses out here and help us take this dam place for the God's!"
Author's Note
I am determined to make this story as fucked up as I possible can.
Chapter 5 - An old ship and an old story
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.
Chapter 6 - Old and New Friends.
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"
Braeburn, Pumpkin, and their new old friends were lead into a room where the two remaining Midnight pirates where resting, Scootaloo was chillin in a Hammock made from multiple sheets stapled and tapped together, Yona was busy trying to rock a traumatized looking Griffin to sleep in her arms. Scootaloo looked at her two crewmates and the three in the cloaks.
"Did you start a cult to?" She asked as she looked them over "Cause me and Spike already promised all of our guys Candy, we not getting 'em all cloaks,"
"How to hell are you gonna do that?" Braeburn demanded "Only place that still makes candy is a 9-week journey in our ship, in this blimp, it'd be three times longer, and don't get me started on the price compared to the taste," Braeburn lifted his Bandana and spat on the floor at the thought. "Oh and Rainbow dash is here to say hi," Rainbow took this as her cue and dropped her hood resulting in Scootaloo dropping out of her hammock and dislocated her shoulder on impact.
"Holy shit!" She cried out as her dislocated arm hung at her side "Best cult ever!" She rushed to Rainbow and gave her a one-handed hug before even noticing she could only use one arm. "Oh crap," she muttered as she lifted her limp arm by her wrist. "Well this has been a good day, I'm ready to die, Pumpkin get over here and snap your aunties neck," Rainbow took this as a joke and swiftly popped Scootaloo's shoulder back into place with a pop and a screech from Scootaloo. "I said snap my neck not fix my arm," She said angrily as she shook it.
"So," Braeburn said, turning to his cousin as she and Pinkie dropped their hoods, "How are you all still alive and Why has it taken you so long to come and say hi? you been avoiding us,"
"To honest," Applejack said rubbing her head as Pinkie went over to Yona to check out what the Griffin was about "We only just found a way past the sea dome, none of us thought for a moment there was still life out here, and we weren't expecting floating islands neither,"
"Oh Pinkie," Yona said in shock having only just now noticed the three elements "You're not dead, Yona proud of you," Her piece said she went back to trying to rock the Griffin to sleep.
"So Rainbow," Scootaloo said as she led her old friend to her hammock "How's your sex life?"
"Wha-?" Rainbow tried to respond only for Scootaloo to keep going.
"And if the answer to that is nonexistent or your freelancing it these days would you be interested in teaching Pumpkin the ropes cause I can pay?"
"So this is a lady boner," Braeburn said scratching his chin "Interesting," this earned him an elbow to the gut from his cousin.
"Kid," Rainbow said red-faced "Not to state to obvious but-"
"Yeah, yeah," Scootaloo said waving the mare off "I tried setting her up with one of the crew but the best we could get was Spike agreeing to be her 2nd and any number after, Yona offered but she'd probably kill Pumpkin," Scootaloo pointed at Braeburn "And he only sleeps with Buffalo's and Yaks, Tried to tell him Unicorns have horns to but he was all like, no they only have one it's not the same, and I'm her aunt so It'd be weird, Pretty sure Spike would kill me and anyone else if they so much as tried to sleep with Limestone, not that she'd agree anyway, Red Heart and Derpy only sleep with each other, Gabby and Vinyl are still trying to get Spike to only sleep with them so asking them is pointless, and No one want's to sleep with Time Turner, nothing against him he's decent in bed I guess but he tends to forget to help his partner finish if you get my drift," The trio stood in silent shock as Scootaloo gave them great details about her friends sex lives and also informed them of who was still alive. Before She could continue however Spike bust through the door, closing it with his tail, his hook raised and ready.
"I heard Limestone and sex in the same sentence, Who has a death wish?" He demanded.
"I was just trying to see if Rainbow's open with sleeping with Pumpkin," Spike looked at Rainbow then took a deep breath through his nose.
"She is not, neither is Applejack, Pinkie is aroused for some reason but it has nothing to do with Pumpkin," there was a half-second of silence before the room turned to Pinkie who was smiling at Spike.
"Nice nose," She grinned, earning one from Spike.
"It's a lot faster to find a quick lay if you can pick out the ones that are interested from a mile away," Spike made his way to Scootaloo, patted her on the back, then stole her hammock.
"Oh son of a bitch," She said as the Dragon got comfy "Now it's gonna smell like Sex,"
"That's just my natural musk," Spike replied as he stuck his tongue out, "That and the three mares I've slept with today,"
"Take a shower," Scootaloo replied as she walked to the other side of the room.
"When we get home," He replied "Last time I took a shower around a cult I ended up in an orgy, and as much fun as that sounds they tend to attract other males and I don't particularly like sharing," Spike easily removed his hook and dropped it to the floor "Pinkie if that Arousal is pointed at me your welcome to join me in showering when we get to the home island, otherwise night," Spike rolled over and proceeded to nap.
"Dick," Scootaloo said before Braeburn got her attention.
"What's up with the griffin?" He asked in confusion.
"Yona's grown fond of it," Scootaloo replied with a shrug "Hasn't spoken a word since we liberated it, might be mute with fear or just naturally mute,"
"Um," Rainbow said getting their attention "What the hell happened to you guys?" she asked with concern evident on her and Applejack's faces, Pinkie had taken a seat and was having a quiet chat with Pumpkin. Scootaloo and Braeburn turned to each other then shrugged.
"a shit ton of violence?" Scootaloo offered.
"Being exploded by a mountain and having to live in a broken world?" Braeburn tried.
"Why not just tell them?" Spike asked grumpily from his hammock, the two mares looked at him and Scootaloo spoke up.
"Just wanna see the look on their faces," She replied with a smile "honestly getting to see how people react to it when it happens is basically the only thing keeping me going, that and it itself," before more questions could be asked or more answers could be avoided Spike spoke up.
"This is going to be a very long and slow trip," He said looking down at them "So," He pointed to Aj and Rainbow "Don't bother asking they can dance around your questions for days, And" He pointed to Scootaloo and Braeburn "Be nice and try to act like you normally wouldn't to avoid making them uncomfortable, and I suggest that all of you ask to be taken to a bed" He suddenly pointed to Yona and her Griffin "including you and your pet because it's going to be at least half a day's trip to the home island" Spike gave a salute then flopped over in the hammock to get back to trying to sleep.
"I guess that's fair," Scootaloo said with a sigh "Alright everyone who isn't Spike follow me to the sleeping chambers, Spike's being very rational and he took his hook off, which means a few mares are waiting for us to clear out so he can have himself a debauchery party," After a few moments of rounding everyone up, and of Rainbow and Applejack refusing to let Pinkie stay for the party they opened the door and headed to the sleeping area, About 30 seconds after they were gone the door opened and a total of 7 mares made their way in. Spike got right up.
"Lock the door please," he said sweetly as the clothing started piling up on the floor and a very sweet smell hit his nose, he sighed as he began stripping "I love being me,"
Chapter 8 - The Home Island
Rainbow and Scootaloo had both left the blimp and were now sitting on top of it, Rainbow could see their home island in the distance, and all she could say to describe it was that it was a Chaotic mismatch of Random landmasses sown together with Bridges, building, what looked to be a lasso made of clouds, and she could even see a giant staple literally sticking out of the bottom of the monstrous island, There was a Large doc with one large ship parked at it, at the edge of it was a lawn chair, and Rainbow could just see a Pony wearing Rainbow slippers waving a small white flag at them.
"So this is your home?" Rainbow asked as she tried to take it all in "It looks like a confusing mess,"
"Oh, it is," Scootaloo confirmed "Do not go into any of the tunnels without a guide you might die before we find you," Rainbow gave a soft chuckle as she looked at Scootaloo.
"I can't tell if your joking," She said as she looked at the mess of an island that was getting closer, "But I guess I should go tell Applejack and Pinkie to stick with a travel partner,"
"Have fun with that, I'm gonna go on ahead to the island and prepare a proper greeting," The Two took to the skies, Rainbow heading back down to the airship and Scootaloo flying to the island. Rainbow landed on some of the outer railings and made her way back inside, the entire upper level was now empty save for Midnight Pirates and their three guests, Rainbow made her way to the designated room and found Pinkie and Applejack inside.
"About time," Applejack said as Rainbow entered,
"I was chilling with the squirt," Rainbow replied "Oh, and we're gonna have to pick a traveling buddy, apparently If you wander off along you might get lost and die so pick a buddy, Applejack I recommend Braeburn, Pinkie anyone but Spike," Pinkie stuck her tongue out and Applejack sighed.
"So...we gonna talk about...them?"
"What about?" Rainbow asked as she took a seat "About how Pumpkin has apparently been stabbed in the back a few dozen times? The fact that Spike's a whore? the fact that they casually have a cult? Maybe you wanna talk about Yona's Griffin?" Rainbow raised her hands and offered Applejack a pair of jazz hands "Well I don't because I'm still trying to get over Scootaloo asking me to sleep with Pumpkin,"
"I wonder what they've been through over the last 20 years," Pinkie said as she paced in thought "Whatever it is they do they must be good at it, they have a cult and Pumpkin's still alive so they must live a somewhat safe lifestyle for a baby to be able to live through it, I hope,"
"Well, I hope they can fix the radio on our airship, if we don't call Twilight soon she's probably gonna come chasing after us in a warship or something,"
"Oh relax," Applejack said as she looked out the window at the approaching island "We managed to tell her we had gotten through the barrier before we lost all connections, "She has no reason to bring a warship to what she still thinks in a flooded equestrian," Applejack looked at the island for a while before adding "Is that a staple?"
"I wanna see!" Pinkie cried out as she rushed to the window.
"Took 'em long enough," Time Turner said with a yawn as he waved a white flag at the approaching blimp, his gaze soon drawn towards Scootaloo as she approached the dock.
"Hey Time Turner," She called out "call everyone to the doc for an emergency meeting," Time Turner didn't get up and instead rolled up his white flag and put it in his left armrests before pulling a whistle out of the right armrest and blowing into it, no sound came from the whistle but the entire island was suddenly filled with a continuous single note of a flute, once Time Turner stopped blowing the sound stopped and he blew again a few times until more instrumental sounds began filling the island.
"Meeting called," he declared as Scootaloo landed, It didn't take very long for the remaining members of the Midnight Pirates to gather.
"About time," Vinyle said as she teleports to the dock and saw both Scootaloo and the blimp in the distance, "Another cult?" She asked as she pointed to the approaching blimp.
"Yeah, a cult, and some old friends," Scootaloo motioned behind Vinyle before adding "I'll explain when everyone gets here," The three gathered members watched as the last four showed up, the first ones were Red Heart and Derpy, both of whom looked slightly frazzled, Gabby was the next one to arrive and they had to wait a full 10 minutes for Limestone to arrive.
"Wow, faster than usual," Scootaloo noted when she saw Limestone approaching, "Must be nice to not have Spike weighing you down for once,"
"Actually it kind of dull," Limestone replied as she approached the group "I kind of miss his spectacular show tune suicides,"
"He is pretty good at creatively killing himself in time with the end of the song," Gabby admitted as she sat on the doc next to Time Turner and looked out at the blimp and turned her gaze to the Old airship it was towing along with it,"
"That is a sweet relic," She said when she saw it, "Please tell me it works! it'd so much easier to maneuver than the MidNight Ride,"
"Oh no, we're just towing it for Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo said waving Gabby off and hearing a fair number of stunned gasps, "I mean, I'm pretty sure it's hers, Between her, Applejack, and Pinkie she's the most likely to..." Scootaloo was cut off as Limestone started violently shaking her.
"Explain now!" She demanded.
The Blimp came to rest above the island and some of the Cultists were unhooking the Airship from the blimp and connecting it to the docs, the Midnight Pirates were having a meet and greeting with Applejack and Rainbow Dash while Pinkie and Limestone sat off to the side,"
"I'm just so happy," Limestone said with a laugh as she tried to stop crying, Pinkie was taking the opposite route and just sobbing into her Sister's shoulder. "Did Mom or Dad make it?" Limestone asked hopefully, the increase in Pinkie's tears gave her all the answer she needed and she put her hand around Pinkie, just enjoying the sensation of having one of her Sisters back.
While Pinkie and Limestone were enjoying each other's company Rainbow Dash and Applejack were doing their best to share their attention to the curious Midnight Pirates while also trying to sate their own curiosity.
"I never would have thought you'd survive," Rainbow said as Time Turner greeted her casually.
"I am the only one here who wasn't in Vinyl's bubble when the train crashed," Time Turner patted his own chest as he added "Broke a few ribs, and now my chest is covered in burn scars, but everyone on the crew has 'em so I'm just happy I didn't get my face fucked up like Spike, Derpy, or Braeburn,"
"Jackass," the three aforementioned pirates said in response to the insult to their respective faces.
"So what's up with that?" Applejack asked Vinyl.
"I already told you," Braeburn said, cutting of Vinyl before she could respond "I got hit in the face by an Exploding mountain, so did everyone else here, we were on Canterlot mountain when it popped like a weasel,"
"That was a stupid analogy," Vinyl said with a laugh as she tapped the ground with her hoof "The very bottom base of this cluster fuck of an island has on it the last remaining remnants of the Friendship Express along with the only chunk of the Canterlot mountain still existing in the sky, altho since you were on top of the mountain when it went boom, I guess that it now exists beyond the ocean barrier?"
"There's a lot of land beyond your ocean wall," Rainbow remarked "Canterlot, some of the Dragon lands, the entire Changling Kingdom, and small silver of the Crystal Empire, even some of Ponyville made it over,"
"oh god," Spike said when he heard about the Crystal Empire, "Crystal ponies are the scary kind of cultist, I was so happy to find the Remnants of the Empire, then the residents tried to eat me and it lost all the charm," Spike visibly shivered at the memory and both Scootaloo and Gabby patted his back in an attempt to comfort him.
"I'm sorry eat you?" Rainbow asked in confusion. Before Spike could elaborate the ground started shaking and the group looked to the island and watched as a large living mass of grey, white, black, and brown started rushing towards them.
"Oh shit, it's my babies!" Spike said, instantly losing all interest in their guest and rushing towards what Rainbow and Applejack now recognized as millions of Rats and Mice,"
"Holy shit," Rainbow said in stunned silence and Applejack said the only thing she could think to say.
"Fluttery would approve," She decided as Spike was enveloped by his pets and started laughing as they amassed beneath him and carried him away.
"Well Spike's probably about to be eaten," Vinyle said as she looked around, "Yona left to go tuck in her Griffion, Limestone seems busy with Pinkie so...teams of two, Scootaloo you're with Rainbow, pick whoever to join you, Braeburn same to you but with Applejack, Pumpkin you go join Pinkie and Limestone," Pumpkin grumbled irritably as she made her way over to Pinkie, having wanted to hang out more with Rainbow Dash.
"Alright, Time Turner you have a great layout of this shit show of an island, lets show Rainbow around,"
"Alright," he replied as he motioned for them to follow.
"I'll take Derpy," Braeburn decided after a second, "Cause why not?"
"Alright be safe," Red heart said as she gave Derpy a kiss on the cheek and made her way back inland "and don't fly, I know your high on something," Derpy waved goodbye to Red heart before joining Braeburn and the concerned looking Applejack.
"I'm gonna go make sure Spike doesn't let his rats eat him," Gabby said casually as she took to the air and made her way to Spike's area of the island.
"You guys have a really fucked sense of humor," Rainbow said as she watched Gabby fly away.
"hmm?" Time Turner looked like he was about to say something but was cut off when Scootaloo dug her elbow into his stomach, "Oh yeah," he said with a pained voice "Comedy gold, alright let's get moving to cloud town," Rainbow looked over to Applejack, who shrugged.
"Have fun," Applejack said as she waved Rainbow off, as the first Trio left Pumpkin took her seat next to Pinkie and looked to Limestone, who decided to try and change the subject.
"Hey, Pumpkin wanna show Pinkie to the kitchen?"
"But Spike hates it when people go into his kitchen," Pumpkin said before adding "And it's so far,"
"He has literally never once so much as tried to stop me from going in there, and I kind of wanna see Pinkie's reaction to his recreation of Sugar Cube Corner,"
"What!?" Pinkie demanded as she jumped to her hooves "Show me, I wanna see!" Limestone smiled and put her arm around Pinkie.
"Sure thing sis, we're gonna have to walk through, Pumpkin has a tendency to miss her vertical mark when teleporting and I don't wanna end up free-falling or drowning in the dirt,"
"Oh a few dozen failed teleports and you're marked for life," Pumpkin complained as the second trio began making their way in the direction Spike had went.
"Now what?" Braeburn asked as he, Derpy, and Applejack stood on the doc.
"We could show her the orchard?" Derpy tried.
"What?" Braeburn demanded, "When the hell did we get an orchard?"
"You planted it," Derpy replied casually.
"I did?" Braeburn asked in shock.
"Yeah, not too long after the first Midnight Ride was destroyed.
"Oh yeah!" Braeburn said smacking himself over the head "I planted a tree in honor of everyone who died, that shit still around?"
"It's now the center point of one of our towns, I think it's mostly a Buffalo colony now,"
"Take. Me. Now!" Braeburn demanded.
"I wanna see the orchard," Applejack agreed, having been trying to find a point to join the conversation for a while.
"Hell yeah, lead the way Derpy!" he cheered as the final trio made their way to their destination.
Author's Note
This Chapter was commissioned by Captainsmiley01
