The night was early in Drumadare, and its inhabitants where still purosing the main thoroughfare under lanterns of green flame and tapestries of fallen princesses. Ill intent and tired bones had made many of the ponyfolk afraid of that wandering circus. Only the black of heart and the truly unsavory lived in that filthy place, the village of thieves and gypsies and witches and murders, and if it wasn't that it was ran by the grand high mangolin of the western zebras, making it the heart beat of any wandering scavenger born of the stripes in Equestria.

It was home.

At its only gate, one of branches and tied tweed that was in a day packed and stowed for summer pastures, a pair of wanders made their approach into the bastion of the zebras.

“Home at last.” Zheshan bleated, dry of mouth turning to look at his master besides him.

Sebudo stopped the boy a ways from the gate and motioned him behind a half buried well by the towns limits. “Ov'r here first, hmm?” Seb walked down to the wells side and laid down.

Zhesh followed suit pulling the kart onto the side of the road.
Seb patted down his wild mane and turned to his pupil. “Why don't you get us a spota water huh?” the elder said patting the well they now sat behind.

“Why? My ma got a fine cask in her place, I thought we were gonna eat there, you where practically bragin' about it when we left town-”

Cutting his young apprentice off, “I know alright, but that was before... its cause wine ain't the kind o' thing you give a babe ok? Knowin' your mother she'd have us reported if we even gaver a sniffing of that kid, you know how she can be with youngins. Especially pony youngins.” Seb sighed and felt like he had disappointed his charge.

Zhesh just stood besides him for a moment, his eyes lost in thought, “I get it then...” he said fishing the pail and dropper from the well.

After both had drunk some of the remarkably sweet well water they sat alone together, neither reaching out to talk.

A long while latter Seb finally broke the silence.
“You think you could let me go the rest of the stretch by myself Z?”

“Don't you need me to pull the kart?”

“I did that 31 years, you thinking I cant pull it a measly half mile?”

“More then that, I know you'll need help storrin everything and uh, the shop ain't the kind of place to sleep at hoss. You sure you won't come on down to Mirtabba's house of fancy?” Zhesh said with a tired smile.

“No. It'll be fine, certain of it. We'll need to check with the Magnolin if you were to come further with me, besides, your place is wit your mutter'... Give me a day or so to get oar' ducks in order. I'll come callin' when we can get back on track, huh son?” Sebudo gave the kid a slug with his hoof before finishing off his water flask.

With a near noiseless “hmm” Zhesh got up and made his way into the tarp town leaving Seb alone with the kart. The throat of the master tightened seeing him go.

Seb pulled out back onto the main path a time after Zheshan had, the sun was down but the waves of orange and purple that harolded the night were still slowly draining from the world. The only keeper at the gate was beginning to close it for the night when he spied Seb coming down.

“Hey there Sebo! I saw your lack'ee come through here a bit ago, he do something I should kno' bout?” A rather large blue steel zebra said untying a knot in the gate so Seb could pass.

“Nothing Hubesi, he's jus' a bit annoyed we did'nt get much from the dig.” looking towards the heart of the town he added, “Still, your mother around some? I got a few things she would want to see.”

“Yeh, don't think so bud. While you where gone a couple of guardsmen and a shady fellow came to her about a attack or somein' similar up north. Real 'proper' equestrians... She ain't in the best mood right now for trade. I'd wait till morn.” Hubesi said stroking his chin, just finishing pushing the gate free.

“That so? Hope nuttin' bad happened.”

“Oh no, nothing like that sir, just made a few threats like they do an went on east to the next shite hole i'd guess.” After a moment hesitation he added, “The guards did atleast, had'nt seen the utter one...” Hubesi pointed with one of his legs.

“East? I just came from the east, the boy and I didn't see anypony on the roads, it was really quiet now that I think about it.”

The steel zebra sighed and looked out onto the dry desert and prairie that covered the land stretching east,

“That doesn't bode well... kay' you really need to talk to ma, just tell my brothers that I sen' you. Just tell her when you see er' what you did er did'nt see. Damn, hope it aint the gait's, that would be the third time in two months.”

“I hope not too...” Seb said navigating through the simple tweed gate and began towards the purple tent of the grand magnolin. “Thank you Hubesi!”

“Ain't nothin!” the guard said putting the gate back and waving to Seb, already off to the councils tent.

As he walked the smells of pumpkin soup and charred orcra eminating from the many tents and shacks that littered the towns slithering drag made his stomach turn in hunger. The old scavenger planed to have been having supper with Mirtabba and her kids when the dig concluded. The only reliable homemade cooking he liked was hers and he wasn't awkward about it or his love for her company and that of her children.

As Sebudo continued down the dirt worn grassy walk to the tent of the magnolin he saw many things that a younger colt like Zheshian did not yet appreciate. The squealing of children in bath, the gentle breathing of the curbed soothsayers, the faint sent of seccle salt being wafted from a kart to his nose. Simple perfections indeed to give meaning to his life. The kart made a noise behind, a subtle coo only one close as him could make out... the thoughts from the river bed met him anew.

(Will this child be a new hue on my lifes canvas? Or the final flaw to its disgrace?)

The tent of the magnolin sat proudly in the middle of the path, all walks made acceptations to where it lay, the entire traveling town around its nucleus. Seb unlatched the kart from himself and releaved his body of its weight. He was getting on in years, it wasn't impossible that he wouldn't be able to pull it in a decade or so but for now it was manageable. He checked on the punctured suitcase the child lay in and after finding her safely asleep he hefted her onto his side, discretely concealed from others gazes.

Seb stepped into the antechamber of the purple yurt. Before was another blue steel zebra, this one with a zigzaged coat and a knotted mane. Behind him was the flap that lead into the chamber of the magnolin. It was common for her to close it off for the time of day it was, but the faint arguing from the other side suggested the days affairs were not yet over.

“I am here to speak with the magnolin.” Seb said bowing his head to the doors keeper.

The keeper looking uninterested in the whole matter measled out a declaration to him,
“The magnolin is not seein' anycreature else this day mister Sebudo, I suggest you make your way home, I can let my mother know of your approach first thing at dawn.”

“Normally I wouldn't mind son, but I have information that must be shared post haste, its involvin' the imperials and a problem I faced in coming back to camp that she has to know tonight. Hubesi even told me so to come here instead of heading home.”

The doorguards eyes peaked, “He did, did he? Hmm, imperials... well I guess I could let you speak with her tonight, but it'll be a while off sir. A trial is goin' on right now and until there's a declaration I cant let anycreature in o' out.. Just take a sit an' ill let you know when you can speak to her.”

And with that Seb nodded curtly to him and sat down on the carpeted front room of the tent and quietly bided his time by picking at his hooves and listening to the sounds of the night. There were indeed indications that a procedure was in progress. The impact of heated words and murmurers made the old scavengers head swim with possibility.

(Is this related to the guardsmen? Or something else?...)

Periodically he veined the appearance of a business pony in double checking his suitcase in front of the door guard. In truth he needed to check on the child, ensuring its quiet to keep both of their noses clean. He did this 4 or so times in waiting, about an hour with change had passed and the cold night had completely taken the outside of the town.

A while longer still and now no green light nor sweet smells where found meeting Sebudos senses, only dusty winds on grass. Seb checked the candles around now and the red time keeper was down a notch and a sixth before a half dozen zebras his own age had walked out of the building and to their own warm beds talking in a manner reserved for disgrace and disownment. Whom ever was being judged had faltered.

Then a screaming howl. If he had not known better Seb could've imagined a demon chained in silver wailing that minor. Weather that victim of the councils verdict was innocent or not, he was receiving justice at the end of a sorceresses staff.

At last when the candle waned to the second notch, through the haze of a day dream Seb was awoken by a bloodied white on black zebra being dragged by two more of his kind in blue steel stripes. The accused he surmised, baring a swirl of shame no less. This poor fellow had just been banished... In the wake of the prisoner's drag walked another. A pony walked behind them wrapped in the clothes of another scavenger. Her face and body where obscured behind thick wool robes but Seb could tell their emotion by posture. What ever had happened earlier that day with the guard and the banished stallion was tied to her. Like a shadow she effected nothing as she vacated the same as the others, but away from the town into the savanna night.

“Ok Sebudo, you can go on in. Mind the blood though, we don't need anymore issues tonight.” the guard said yawning reclining on a stumpy stool.

Seb raised himself once more and gathered himself before heading in. He felt how his apprentice had the day before, hardly able to stay focused on the mission before him. In his hopes to soldier through to an audience with the grand magnolin he took one last step into her chambers.

The Magnolin was a tremendously old mare. Seb was only a spry kid of 10 when she took over as the leader of the herd and it showed in her coat. Where once was the ticker-tack pattern of a silvery blue furred sorcerer was now a barely distinguished gray on white. To the less informed she may have been taken as past her prime or to be a commoner. That was one trick she had acquired for dealing with usurpers among many. She, master of flesh and mind sat alone with a brussling assortment of black and blue thorned bewitching talismans in a sleeve. She cleaned them for storage until the next urchin defiled the clans laws. Sitting at the head of a fire pit in the center of the room, mermering prayers inaudible to her self in concentration to clean the air of ill spirits. Suddenly, without ever parting her lips a whisper squeezed Sebudos skull booming.

(So you come to I for guidance child? My premonitions said a omen of change would come this day... has it already passed me by... or do you yet carry it for me..?)

Seb always loathed the elders his whole life... for they knew no morals of privacy of the mind. He knelled before her, placing the case by his right.

“Magnolin Friscall, pardon my rude hour of calling...”
Sebudo spoke as his forehead touched the soil.

(Their is no need son of my stripe... We know when a member worries... as well as when they are at ease... I knew a mist of indecision has made you a vagrant in the realms of our clan... Share your peace with us...)

Twice the throb of this mental probe struck Sebudo.

“Magnolin, if I may be emboldened to speak, may we shed these uncomfortable spells, it worries my spirit deeply, as I could betray myself and misinterpret your manners...” Seb spoke firmly at her but not meeting her face.

After a faint moment had passed, in a soft voice of the senior zebra, “We may if that is what you wish...”

Making another courteous bow nod as he answered,
“Thank you madam.”

Seb looked back at the tents flap to the door guards post,
“This issue I surmise only we few should be aware of madam.”

With a only half hearten gesture of her face the steel zebra at the door vanished out of sight and the flap was zipped up.

Seb for the first time looked into the orange eyes of the matriarch and pulled out the child...

.-=O=-.

“Now if I said, 'Hansuei, waltopowee kultupe.' what whould I be saying?”

It was a strong warm dry day on the coast of Whinnyapolis, a perfect day for page Yearling to practice translations with her teacher away from their sweaty dig site and the other students. They sat under a yellow aged veranda with dead black thorny vines clinging on its top, it sat looking out to the west seas surrounded by a collection of damaged statues of chimeras she had never seen, all headless save one.

“Under... glow, stones... fate is?” Yearling said to her teacher in a poor attempt at translating Deerling speak.

Her mentor was amused by this slightly and used her teeth to better emphasis the text on the scroll as she spoke.

“Well you have the general idea atleast, that's an improvement already from the classroom, but you need to not rush, its not a test... Break it down for me, which words do stand out?...”

(Yesss, pay attention girl. What stands out?)

“Well, Waltos means raidence... and a powee pole is a stone marker like in the stories we heard from the chief...”

As Yearling recited her answer the one mostly intact statue looked as if it had turned towards her to watch what she would do next. She didn't say anything.

“Yes, a good deduction, glowing stones works as a translation, and what does Kultupe mean Yearling?”

“I'm not one hundred on this but 'Kulk' is a derogative of the ponish 'cult' so I think it would have something to do with gods or destinies.”

Doctor Rusker sat up from her pillow and acted out the words meaning, throwing her words verbally as she poured more tea from the pitcher. She seemed to pour that pitcher for minutes on end as the statue more directly looked at yearling,

(Im serious lady, if you don't pay attention this will pass you by, believe me, you don't want to live like this.)

“I'll say it again, lessen to the tense with the inflection, 'Hansuei, waltopowee kultupe.' You hear the 'tupe', rise at the end?” Rusker spoke out loud to her student, but in a odd sense Yearling also thought she was talking to the statue.

“Yes professor.”

(Yeesss professssooorrr, you try and help but no one ever notices... see if I care...)

The statue slowly broke apart behind the doctor, until it was nothing but its two miss shaped horns. Rusker bent down to the filly and spoke slowly. Her face distorting to its side but still uncertain of the girls response.

“You are aware of what a 'tupe' means?”

Yearling with a wanting dip in her face, frowning and closing her eyes searching her mind for the answer... in defeat she said “No. I don't know that one.”

The professor gathered her day coat from her chair and put it around her head and back as she extrapolated to Yearling.

“Hmm, its a suffix for a item or pony being 'acursed'. More specifically in this context it means 'reversed'... You want to try another time at translating the guides clue? We still have a few minutes before anypony misses us.”

(A curse, Reversed.)

“Okay.” Daring stretched and bent her tongue scouring the right words in her mouth until she said. “Besides elder glowing way-stones, a fate altering item lay?”

In her teachers face the student saw happiness for her translation but something in her face was off, for a moment miss Ruskers eyes where pitched in onyx with glints of white as if someone had inverted them without her knowing.

“Yes! Fantastico my girl! I couldn't have-”

Then nothing.

Darring was back in that dripping wooden cell she had become accustomed to waking in. She tried to open her eyes further then a wink but a blaze in her cranium made her freeze in pain. Until it began to normalize itself atleast a little.

(Why am I in bed?... Why does my skull feel like its been busted?...)

The hatch on her porthole was locked but the orange beam gleaming through told her she either had been out a few hours or a whole day but from her headache and wistfulness it could've been either.
The adventurer shifted her limbs around. Choking back a quivering breath she found her left lore leg and her left wing were bandaged with care in blue sheeting just as her head was.

“Hello?!” Daring shouted at nopony impeticuliar, her voice just reverberated in the floating coffin that was called the mired hobb. “Any, one- ohh that fucking hurts.” Daring said attempting to sit up right on the bed. She decided it was best to verbally recall and trace her steps, quietly.

“What happened? We were attacked by pirates... The captain is...” daring purposefully breathes in and then out, sweating through her sailing shirt “They were, hedgehogs. From a flying ship. I-, killed two but there was a third one... a dog? With a crossbow...”

At this her anxiousness was revived and through her straining agony she attempted to get up. She buckled but didn't fall in on herself.

(Either way i'm a captive or a survivor, if its the former id better not take anymore chances. This wouldn't be a good end for a book.)

“Chapter 2, She died of a concussion.”

Daring felt around the crate that acted as a night stand to prop herself on her new tripod stance and over to the pallet she had been using as a table. With her working wing she started collecting her papers and tools into her satchel taking inventory.

“Sextant, Journal, Whiskey, Rope, Telegram?...”

As she worked there was definitely evidence that somepony had just come short of ransacking her things. It could've been just the rocking from the impact,s earlier when they were attacked but that wouldn't have rearranged the telegram and her written orders from the college and princess Luna to the top of the pile...

“Oh, no.”

It would've been one thing if the pirates had done this, they perhaps would've went looking for salvage or treasure in Equis, but if she was still in the crews company then who ever had bandaged her would also know who she was and why she had been lying, creating a scarlet letter on her flank for all to see. Damned if she did, and what not. So far this was leading into one of Darings least favorite things, communicating.

A long moment later a knock-knocking came from the rooms door.

Facing her uncertainties head on she answered as non committal as possible, “Yes? What is it?”

(What is it? Come on, are you brain damaged?! Well, I guess that could be it.)

“Umm, explorer lady, you ok in there?” The creaking voice of Bosen came through the door. “It sounded like you were waking up and I was told to help you if you did.”

“Uhh yes, I would like that. Mister Bosen please... come in...” Daring answered in a drawn out way, only after making sure any of sensitive the papers where in her bag and away from where nosy visitors may see.

Bosen opened the weighted door with a strained push from his head. He looked worse for wear compared to the smart-ass unicorn teen she meet days before, now he looked more like a child thrown into a grown stallions body as he was in all physical means good but something about his manners in her doorway made him seem like not all the lights where on upstairs.

“Well. I thought my cabin got hit bad...” He said purposefully pointing from the overturned pallets and broken barrels that filled the cabin.

“No, I'm pretty sure it was like this before.” Daring said with a smile to the unicorn.

(Blatant Lie.)

“So is it true?” Bosen cocking his head at her.

“Whats that?”

“That you killed 5 pirates by yourself! Its amazing from what Wattz said, with all the blood and broken bones! I thought I heard a gun from below deck when it happened but I wanted to wait to ask you since you fought them hoof to hoof.” Bosen said shifting his shoulders in a old one-two move.

“Well... hmm, what day is it?”

“Oh I should've known you would need me to talk first, well ok. Its the sixth of epita if the calendar is right. You've been out for three days I think.”

“Three-, three days?” Daring choked out

“Hmm its probably more like three and a half, it is almost night.” Bosen said looking at the porthole.

(It doesn't look like its snowing out. How off course are we?)

“Where are we? Is the ship stable? Is anyone dead?” Daring was reentering a certain heightened awareness that she had been in before the fight, or for the less deserning of you, shell shock. As her panic came out her head throbbed again, for a moment she couldn't see clearly and almost fell against the wall but Bosen caught her before she broke something else.

“Woah! Don't have a conniption miss, you dont want to go under again, who knows if you'd come out.” With a dry chuckle Daring didn't care for, Bosen rested her side to the cot she was in. Only now looking down at it did she see the sweat and blood from where she had lay.

Choking back a ball of rising bile from her nerves she said to him again, “Where... are we?”

Bosen stood as he searched for the explanation, “We are in Gulls Rest, just got here a few, maybe two hours ago. Captain Wattz went into town with Caspian, its just you, me and the floor boards. Oh and Savanna, shes here too. Somewhere...”

This is exactly why Daring preferred the company of paid contractors or better yet, no one at all. These ponies were too unpredictable and harmed her mission rather then help it. For all she knew everypony shipwrecked on the old continent was dead now because of their fuck up against the pirates. Atleast they kept her alive and above water, that was a start.

“I'm gonna need a bucket.”

Author's Note

Sorry for a lack of updates, my family recently lost two loved ones and that combined with the "Rona" going around its been easier just to keep my head down. if you've made it this far I applaud your commitment, ill try and have another part out soon but in these hard times I cant make many promises.